Big Cap comeback

“I’ve played here for three years,” said Stines, a third-year varsity senior, “and I’ve never heard this place that quiet.”

With Cap trailing 3-0 in the top of the seventh, Stines led off the inning by striking out. But the Mustangs (3-2 PAL Bay, 6-10 overall) ultimately sent nine batters to the plate as Burlingame’s bullpen imploded, issuing four walks and a hit batsman in the inning, including 12 straight balls to the bottom three hitters in the order.

The final walk of the frame to No. 9 hitter Kenny Osterlund forced home the tying run.

In the eighth, two Burlingame pitchers combined for three more walks, a hit batsman and four wild pitches. Stines, leading off the inning, took a wicked fastball on his right forearm. Play was halted for several minutes while Stines, in obvious pain, lobbied to stay in the game.

“They needed me,” Stines said. “They said be smart and don’t dive head first. Just score the run. So I did what I had to do. They made it easy for me, that’s for sure.”

That they did. Stines moved up three times on three different wild pitches, the final one allowing him to score from third base to give Cap its first lead of the night. And the senior got a hero’s welcome in the Mustangs’ dugout.

“It was crazy in there,” Stines said. “They were cautious to not touch my wrist. But other than that we were pumped.”

Burlingame starting pitcher Emilio Flores was absolutely dominant through six innings, allowing just two Cap base runners — one on a trickling infield hit, and another on an infield error.

“I felt great about the way he threw considering he’s been sick for three days,” Burlingame manager Shawn Scott said. “He didn’t throw his bullpen or anything this week. Today was a spot start and he did exactly what we asked him to do. He kept us in the game.”

After Flores threw just 67 pitches, however, Panthers manager Shawn Scott went to the bullpen to start the seventh.

“That’s what we normally do,” Scott said. “That’s what our program is built on. We get our starters as long as we can get them and minimize the pounding of their arms. We have a good bullpen. Today the bullpen didn’t do the job.”

Cap finished with just three hits on the night. But that proved enough to front the Mustangs’ second win over Burlingame in as many days. Cap won Thursday 5-3 in regulation. It marks the second straight year the Mustangs have swept their rival Panthers.

Tony Pellegrini had the only hit off Flores, a trickling infield single that Flores looked to have a play on but it bounded under his glove, with Pellegrini just beating the throw to first from second baseman Jordi Aguilar.

In the seventh, Cap pinch hitter Christian Brazil got his team on the board with a single to left field. Despite stepping to the plate with two runners on and representing the tying run, Brazil said he wasn’t swinging for the fences.

“I was just trying to get the run in so we could have some momentum to keep this going,” Brazil said. “Get more runs.”

It turned out to be a clutch AB for the senior left-handed hitter, who has been used several times as a pinch hitter this year. He admittedly had struggled until Friday though.

“That was a big deal for me,” Brazil said. “That was like the first big hit of mine.”

Pellegrini and Overlund went on to draw bases-loaded walks to tie it. In the eighth, after Stines scored the go-ahead run, cleanup hitter Leonardo Espinoza logged the final hit, lining an RBI single to center to plate Trey Zahursky.

Espinoza, pitching in relief, earned the win by tallying two perfect innings. Cap starting pitcher Christian Colmeares took a no-decision through six innings of work.

Cap manager Matt Wilson was not in attendance due to having to travel to a family wedding. The two-game rivalry series was originally scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, but rain on Wednesday forced a postponement.

“It’s a great morale booster,” Cap interim manager Robb Martinucci said. “We’ve been struggling. We’ve been playing tough. We’ve got a really tough schedule. … With this team, you can’t afford to give outs away. We’ve been grinding. They’ve got the work-hard mentality.”

Burlingame fielded a new left-side infield, with shortstop Brendan Magalong and third baseman Chase Funkhouser each making their first starts of the year. Magalong recovered nicely from a fourth-inning error by slapping a tag on a throw from catcher Alex McMaster to catch Stines trying to steal. On the following play, Magalong made a rangy play to his backhand to throw out Zahursky on an infield grounder.

Funkhouser was 2 for 2 at the plate with an RBI single. The junior also made the defensive play of the night, leaving his feet with full extension to glove a soft liner off the bat of Cap junior Cruise Thompson to end the third inning.

“I’m very happy that he stepped up,” Scott said. “I told him after [Thursday’s] game he was starting. I told him to be ready to play and he did exactly that. He came ready to play. He showed he’s hungry to be on the field. And that’s huge.”

The win for the Mustangs is critical as it moves them into fourth place, a half game ahead of Menlo School, in the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division standings. The league season is not quite at the halfway point, but ultimately the top four finishers in the Bay Division receive automatic bids to the Central Coast Section playoffs.

The loss for Burlingame (1-4, 7-6), though, is a debilitating one, according to Scott.

“No league title for us,” Scott said. “We’re nowhere remotely close to a league title chance. Now we’ve just got to finish middle of the pack because everybody is ahead of us now.”