Jul 16, 2008

Wells singles, scores to lift Hawks

Mistakes hurt Burlingame in final game before Area 2 tourney

By Greg Lydon / Daily News Correspondent

With only two games left in the regular season, Los Altos coach Brady Austin wanted a fine-tuned effort from his team heading into this weekend's American Legion Area 2 tournament.

Austin's club played error-free ball in the field and took advantage of costly mistakes by its opponent to beat Burlingame 6-5 in a seven-inning game Tuesday evening at Mountain View High School.

"We took advantage of their mistakes," Austin said. "Coming down the stretch, we're trying to get everyone prepared for the postseason."

Andrew Suvennachven tied the game 5-5 with a seventh-inning RBI single to left field for Burlingame.

Adam Wells led off the bottom of the seventh with a single to right for Los Altos. Robbie Chin was hit by a pitch during the next at-bat to place two runners on and no one out. Garrett Silski hit a grounder toward second base that bounced off the second bagger's glove into the outfield.

The throw to home was just a bit late, as Wells slide home safely to give the home team the 6-5 victory.

"Give credit to them, they made the plays when they counted," Burlingame coach Pat Condon said. "We hit four batters. All of them in bad situations."

Los Altos outfielder Lane Cowan was struck in the upper back near the spine in the third inning. He was replaced by Chin and did not return to the game.

The scary third inning continued for Los Altos when catcher Kamron Fariba took a blistering fastball off the helmet.

The pitch hit the side of the helmet, forcing a second Hawks player out.

"Anytime you get hit in the head, you're a little out of it," Austin said. "Kamron and Lane didn't return after that inning. It's hard to lose two guys in the same inning, but our bench did a great job of filling in and helping us win the game tonight."

Los Altos will play Palo Alto on Friday at Mountain View High in its final game before this weekend's league tournament at Baylands Athletic Center in Palo Alto.

Burlingame concluded its regular season with a tough loss, but Condon plans to put the days off before the league tournament to good use.

"We're done until Saturday, but I'm trying to get a couple practices in later in the week," Condon said. "We need to work on some stuff and get things straighten out before the tournament this weekend."

Los Altos struck first with a Cowan RBI single in the first, but Burlingame didn't let them keep the lead for long. loading the bases in the third inning. Mistakes killed Burlingame throughout the game, but a costly baserunning gaffe in the third hindered the road team from pushing across more runs.

Suvunnachven pushed a single to right to tie the game at one, but after the runner at third was held up on the bag, the Burlingame runner rounded second hard and ended up caught out in a rundown. The Burlingame runner on first also crept off the bag toward second base and also was a causality on the play.

The unique double play killed the hopes of a big inning for Burlingame, but Steven Ziddle still gave his team the lead with an RBI single to right field during the next at-bat.

"That double play really hurt us early in the game," Condon said. "There was no need to send the runner home and make the first out of the inning. The mental lapses on the bases cost us today."

Trouble on the bases followed the road club into the field later in the third with a dropped fly ball in foulground leading to one run for Los Altos.

Two balls were lost in the tough sun in center field in the sixth inning to give Los Altos a 5-4 lead.

"It was a tough sun out there, but that's also bad communication to let those balls drop," Condon said. "It was a bad day in the field."

Seeding will be announced Thursday for this weekend's tournament.