Jul 6, 2008

White Sox keep right on rolling

By Julio Lara / Daily News Correspondent

For baseball teams searching for a winning equation, the San Mateo White Sox offer this: no walks equals shutouts.

The formula worked Saturday afternoon as the Sox continued their unbeaten ways in the Burlingame Fourth of July Tournament, shutting out the San Carlos Tribe 7-0 at Washington Park.

Former Aragon Don TJ Dinges schooled the San Carlos bats, going the full seven innings, scattering four hits and striking out four.
And most importantly, according to his coach Lenny Souza, he didn't walk anybody.

"He didn't limit us with our pitch calling," Souza said. "Sometimes he'll have two of his three pitches working but everything was working today."

It was a frustrating game for the Tribe, which only managed four hits - this after erupting for 16 the previous night, when they stranded 12 runners. Saturday, they were able to get a fair share of their baserunners into scoring position with less than two outs, but failed to score.
"I felt really good," Dinges said. "And it felt really good beating them," he said, adding that he had a little bit of personal agenda when facing off against his old high school coach, Jesse Velez, who is an assistant coach for San Carlos.

While Dinges and his 82-pitch performance was brilliant, San Carlos starter Brad Sentman was gutsy. Struggling with his control, the right-hander did the best he could to dance in and out of trouble.

In the top of the third, Sentman walked four San Mateo hitters, yet came out of the frame relatively unhurt, surrendering only one run on a double by Alex Zeglin.

San Carlos' shots at scoring came in the third and the fourth. They had runners at first and second with nobody out in the third. But after a sacrifice bunt, Kyle Leoung popped up to third and David Alonzo's bomb to the gap was run down in center by Ryan Hamilton to end the Tribe threat.

In the fourth, Jeff Keller led off with a double followed by a Nick Misa single that Keller would have scored on had he not had to retreat slightly to second to make sure the line drive wasn't caught. Three San Carlos hitters later, Keller and Misa were still on base.

That mades 18 stranded Tribe runners in two games.

Sentman remained courageous, but lost it in the fifth. Zeglin singled, Mike Stosz walked and Miles Krane followed with an RBI single. The Tribe then made back-to-back errors, ending the outing for Sentman.

Rich Vallero went to Jonathan Fukuhara for relief with two runners on.
But the Sox's Nick Borg welcomed Fukuhara rather rudely, homering on the first pitch thrown by the right hander to give San Mateo a 7-0 advantage.

Fukuhara maintained his composure, going the rest of the way for the Tribe without giving up a run.

San Carlos' best attempt at a rally came in the sixth, when with two outs Misa and Bret Kilburg struck for a double and a single, respectively. But Dinges struck out Adam Costello, stranding another two runners.

"We've been hitting the ball hard," Dinges said. "And I am pretty confident with my defense. They had some pretty big catches today."