Sunday Aug 3

Burlingame opens state tourney with a victory

Hahn pitches complete game; champs up next

By ANDY WILCOX / Daily News Correspondent

YOUNTVILLE - Kevin Hahn was in awe of his Burlingame 19-and-under team being in the American Legion State Tournament for the first time, in awe of his fire-throwing counterpart on the mound, and wilting in the rising heat.

But he wasn't about to seek relief during Saturday's opener as he outdueled Michael Torrence in a 7-2 win over Fairfield's B&L Properties, a program that's reached the World Series twice.

"I was a little nervous starting in the first game of the tournament and honored to have the coaches' trust, but I told them they're going to have to pry the ball away from me," Hahn said after tossing a complete game, allowing six hits in nine innings. "I told them I'm not giving up, no matter how many pitches, I was going to keep going."

Burlingame will play the defending state champion Merced Volunteers at 3 p.m. today at the Veterans Home of California's Cleve Borman Field. Merced, which has won three of the past four state crowns, advanced with a 6-4 win over Lakewood Post 496 of Southern California.

Hahn allowed two hits to open the game, resulting in an RBI groundout, and gave up James Mossholder's leadoff homer in the fourth. Other than that, he used his teammates to work out of jams.

He teamed with first baseman Steven Riddle on four 3-1 putouts, where the pitcher scampers over to take the throw from the first baseman. One of those stranded two runners in the fifth, atoning for Hahn's hit-by-pitch and his only walk of the game.

A hit-and-run single in the second inning put Fairfield runners at the corners with one out, but second baseman Daniel Lenardon caught a popup and made his third assist of the young game to end the threat. Lenardon made his biggest play to end the sixth, grabbing a tough blooper in shallow right field to strand two more runners.

Fairfield didn't have a hit after that.

After Mossholder's homer tied the score 2-2, Burlingame (20-11) took the lead for good in the fourth on Stephen Merchant's two-out infield single, an error by the shortstop, and Mathew Feldman-Romero's hit-and-run, two-run single. Feldman-Romero led Burlingame's 10-hit attack with a 3-for-4 day.

"Feldman is our mighty mouse. He gets everything started. He's an instigator," Hahn said of the shortstop, who turned a 4-6-3 double play to end the game. "He's a great hitter and a great fielder and he made a bunch of great plays today."

After Feldman-Romero's big hit, Torrence struck out No. 3 hitter Aphisack Andrew Suvunnachuen for the second time. He fanned Riddle in the fifth with another blistering fastball for his 10th strikeout, but it was his last. Gregory Diekman (2-for-4) followed with an RBI single for a 5-2 lead, and Torrence was relieved by Nicholas Gregory to start the sixth.

"(Torrence) looked good," Hahn said. "He hit his fastball well - he blew one right by me (for a first-inning strikeout) and had a really good changeup. But we started hitting the ball, they made a couple mistakes, and we took advantage."

Burlingame went down 1-2-3 in the sixth, but in the seventh got a leadoff double from Suvunnachuen. He was thrown out trying to steal third, but had set the tone. Trevor Pasiecznik singled and scored on Hahn's RBI double. One out later, Hahn scored on a Diekman RBI double to cap the scoring.

"We've been hitting the ball well," Hahn added. "We're a very streaky team, but today we all came out and had great attitudes. I had a feeling we were going to win today."

Though his program has made the state tournament for well over a decade, Fairfield manager Brad Hanson cut all of his returners from last year to rebuild for next year, when Fairfield hosts the Western Regionals.

"Hahn did a good job," Hanson said. "He mixed it up a lot. He threw junk balls and we hit more charity-hop groundballs than I've seen all season. We never made them work for anything hardly. If you don't make the infield work, you're not going to get results.

"They got three key two-out hits and we failed to get two-out hits in three key situations. That's baseball, though. None of these guys have been here before. They're learning."