Jul 9, 2008

Outman's curveball helps San Carlos win

Reliever slams door on SM National in semifinal showdown

By Greg Lydon / Daily News Correspondent

San Carlos assistant coach Lee Brandenburg got a pleasant surprise on Day 1 of practice for the 9-and-10-year-old San Carlos All-Stars.

James Outman can really pitch.

Outman unveiled a big swooping curveball, much to his coaches' delight.
"He showed up with that curve," Brandenburg said. "It's an extremely tough pitch for kids to hit at this level."

Fast forward a couple of weeks. The big bender was causing trouble for opposing hitters again as Outman helped San Carlos nip San Mateo National 2-1 on a hot summer evening at Marina Field in Belmont.
The San Carlos win was the first of two District 52 tournament winners-bracket semifinals held Monday night at the Belmont Sports Complex.

Alpine-West Menlo rolled to a 11-3 win over Foster City in the second semifinal. San Carlos will face Alpine-West Menlo today at 5 p.m. in the winners-bracket final.

Dominic Freschet for San Mateo National and Dante Poleselli for San Carlos traded blows in a classic pitchers dual early in the game.

After each side was held scoreless in the first two innings, Connor Folan led off the third with a single to right for San Carlos.

Folan stole second base, then scored the opening run of the night on an infield error by San Mateo National. Folan advanced to third base on what looked to be an inning-ending ground ball, but the throw got past the San Mateo first bagger, allowing the alert Folan to give San Carlos a 1-0 lead.

Tyler Brandenburg followed with a bunt single that scored the final San Carlos run to give his team a 2-0 lead in the top of the third.

Back-to-back defensive gems in the field by San Carlos kept the San Mateo offense held down in the bottom half of the inning. San Carlos held the narrow two-run lead after three innings.

Brendan Campbell made a sliding catch in center field for out No. 2, then second baseman Daniel Hayes ripped off another diving grab to finish off the inning for San Carlos.

"All of us together as a team played really well tonight," San Carlos coach Ross Kelly said. "It was a complete team effort."

San Mateo National's best scoring chance came in the fourth inning. San Mateo loaded the bases with one out, forcing the San Carlos starter out of the game.

Outman came in and quickly got out No. 2 on a strike three looking call on his strikeout pitch, the big curve.

Anthony Leary battled for a huge bases-loaded walk in the next at-bat for San Mateo National to push in one score, but Outman didn't fold, getting the second strike three call looking to get out of trouble in an impressive relief appearance for San Carlos.

"James can get those big strikeouts for us. His control has been the only thing slowing him down," Lee Brandenburg said. "For him to come in and get out of that situation was really great for us."

Getting out of trouble in the fourth made a hot night a little warmer for the San Carlos coaching staff.

But the San Mateo rally in the bottom of the sixth signaled more nail-biting moments ahead for San Carlos.

Tyler Villaroman drew a leadoff walk to open the inning for San Mateo, then Alex Hernandez jolted a single to right field to put the winning run on first base with no outs.

A sacrifice bunt try rolled to close to third base, allowing San Carlos to get the force out at third. Then Outman finished off the night in style, recording back-to-back strikeouts to prevent the game-tying run at third from scoring. The dominant relief effort catapulted San Carlos into the winners-bracket finale.

"We pretty much avoided the losers bracket entirely, which is huge," Kelly said. "It's tough to survive over there. We'll have a normal practice day on Tuesday, then be back here Wednesday night. Everyone is very excited."