Burlingame's tourney stay is bittersweet

Had Burlingame won either of its final two games, it would have advanced to the next round. That situation was made apparent because Lakewood was kicked out of the tournament for reportedly vandalizing property.

"The hardest thing is we had two games to move on and we didn't win either one of those," Burlingame manager Eric Nuss said. "We didn't find out about the Lakewood situation until after (our second loss)."

Burlingame opened the tournament with a 7-2 victory over Fairfield. Kevin Hahn pitched another gem, allowing only six hits while going the distance. In his last three starts, Hahn pitched two complete games -- including 10 shutout innings in one start.

Plenty of Burlingame players stood out against Fairfield. Matt Feldman went 3-for-5 and drove in two runs, Hahn helped his own cause with a RBI single and Greg Diekman went 2-for-4 with two RBIs. But it was yet another superb performance form Hahn that drew raves from Nuss.

"Kevin always wants the ball," Nuss said. "He told me in the seventh inning I would have to pry the ball out of his hands. It's always good when your pitcher wants to hold onto the ball like that. And you had Greg get two big two-out hits. He delivered when it counted."

Burlingame's loss to Merced was a heartbreaker. It trailed the entire way before coming up with three runs in the top of the eighth. Andrew Suvunnachuen belted a two-run home run in the fifth. Steven Riddle, Nick Gregory and Diekman highlighted the eighth with run-scoring hits, giving Burlingame its first and only lead at 5-4. However, Merced came back with two runs in the bottom half of the inning before closing things out in the ninth. The defeat was too much to overcome as Charter Cove slugged 12 hits in eliminating Burlingame.

"The Merced game took a lot out of us emotionally," Nuss said. "It was a tough one to take."

Burlingame starter Ryan Simpson pitched 6 1/3 solid innings against Merced, allowing three earned runs and keeping his team in the game.

"Ryan kept us in the game against a very good team," Nuss said.

So came an end to one of the great runs by a Bay Area Legion team in recent memory. Burlingame went 14-10 in Peninsula League play before peaking in the Area 2 tournament, winning four consecutive elimination games to take the championship in only its second year of fielding a program. While Nuss isn't thinking about next year, there's no reason to think Burlingame won't have a championship-contending team for years to come. Its 17-and-under team also won the area title, providing a nice feeder system to the senior team. And eight players from this year's squad will be returning in 2009.

"We have a pretty good nucleus," Nuss said. "Without a doubt we had a great summer. It was a good feeling all the way around. We took our lumps early but came together as a group. This is an experience that hopefully our kids will remember for the rest of their lives. It was great. When our players were on the field, they loved every second of it."