Thursday Jul 24

5-time champs stunned

By Greg Lydon / Daily News Correspondent

Every time a hitter steps into the batters box, he wages a one-on-one battle with the opposing pitcher.

Wednesday at Baylands Athletic Center in Palo Alto, pitchers painted the corners with dancing two-seam fastballs while hitters dug in and worked themselves deep into the count to find that quality pitch to hit. Fans were treated to several amazing battles in the waning innings of an instant classic, the reward a chance to play for the Area 2 tournament title later in the evening.

The Burlingame 19-and-under American Legion baseball team received back-to-back clutch RBI hits from Matt Feldman and Andrew Suvunnachuen to take the lead in the bottom of the eighth, then held off a late ninth inning charge by San Mateo to upend the defending champions 10-8 in an elimination game.

"The kids were ready for the game," Burlingame coach Eric Nuss said. "They prepared themselves mentally going into this one and kept battling. We hung in there, we just kept telling them nine innings is a long game."

Trailing 5-2 going into the bottom of the sixth, Burlingame scored four times in the sixth and four more times in the eighth inning to end the five-year championship run from San Mateo.

Feldman's RBI single up the gut put Burlingame up 8-7, Suvunnachuen followed with another smoking single up the middle to plate two more teammates putting his club up 10-7 after eight innings.

"I tip my hat to everyone in this tournament," San Mateo manager Mike Chanteloup said. "The two best teams are the ones still playing. Matthew Feldman and Andrew Suvunnachuen hit two huge situational hits for them to give them the lead tonight."

With the nail-biter behind, Burlingame went on to play Redwood City in the night cap. Burlingame won 5 to 4 to take home the tournament title.

"We used some horses tonight," said Nuss, whose main concern was pitching depth. "There's no tomorrow if you don't win the first one. We told the guys we were going to use a committee approach tonight; we'll stick to that for the second game as well."

San Mateo came out looking for the knockout punch early, as the Orioles put three runs on the board in the first inning to jump ahead.

Ryan Allgrove scored on a passed ball in the second inning, Allgrove causing havoc on the base paths early and often for the Orioles. Allgrove's second run of the game gave his team a 4-0 lead in the second inning.

In his last game as a Oriole, Allgrove went 5-for-5, walked once, scored two runs and drove in a key late-inning RBI to give his team the lead.

"He has intangibles that the average fan can't see," Chanteloup said. "He turned a single into center field into a double tonight just with his hustle."

The four-run advantage, the biggest for either side during the tightly contested battle, started to dwindle away in the following innings.

Burlingame scored one run in the second and another in the third inning to slice the lead to 4-2.

San Mateo added another run in the sixth inning, but the three-run lead wouldn't last for long.

Stephen Riddle's double to left-center in was the third straight hit for Burlingame to open the bottom of the sixth. Riddle pushed across his second and third RBIs with the gapper, but was gunned down trying to stretch the double into a triple.

"Today was a weird game," Nuss said. "We ran ourselves out of a couple innings, but didn't quit."

Matthew Cochran drew a walk, then got to walk home after a towering two-run homer off the bat of Gregory Diekman put upset-bound Burlingame in the lead after six innings of action.

The defending champions didn't go into the night quietly.

San Mateo loaded the bases in the seventh, tied the game at 6-6 with a walk, then got a slow rolling bases-loaded RBI single by Allgrove to put the Orioles back on top at 7-6.

After Burlingame put together its second four-run inning of the game in the eighth to take a 10-7 lead, San Mateo mounted one last surge in the final frame.

Burlingame got two quick fly outs to open the ninth, then had to sweat out the elusive 27th out of the game.

Three straight San Mateo hitters worked deep into the count and stayed alive down to their last strike of the summer.

San Mateo scored once in the ninth, but ran out of gas falling 10-8 to the upstart squad from Burlingame.

"The memory I'm going to take from this game is that we died on our terms," Chanteloup said. "It came to an end cause it was supposed to."