CSM faces familiar foe in opening of Super Regional

Wild. That's the way College of San Mateo baseball manager Doug Williams described his team's first-round playoff series with Sierra last weekend. Who could argue? The No. 2 seed Bulldogs (29-8-1) -- who host one of two Northern California Super Regionals starting Friday -- allowed 30 runs in three games but still won the best-of-three series two games to one, thanks to a powerful lineup that out-slugged the Wolverines. "Two things stand out (from the series vs. Sierra)," Williams said. "One, is we didn't play as well as we're capable of playing, but two, the guys showed tremendous fight and competed extremely well and that's why we're still playing." CSM opens up the double elimination Super Regional at 11 a.m. Friday against No. 15 San Jose City (22-18). The 3 p.m. game features No. 5 Fresno City (30-8) vs. No. 7 Sacramento City (23-15). There will be three games played on Saturday, with one or two games on Sunday. One thing is for certain: Williams and his coaching staff are preparing their players for anything and everything. "In this day and age with college baseball, nothing really surprises me anymore," Williams said. "We've been involved in all different sorts of Super Regionals over the years and we're preparing our guys for any scenario. You can certainly look for us to play a little better; that's not asking a great deal out of these guys because they showed during the year they're capable of playing consistently well." That's why Williams isn't concerned his team allowed 45 hits and committed 12 errors in three games against Sierra -- he knows the series was probably more of an aberration than anything else. CSM is loaded with talent and experience, as it returned a number of players from last year's team. The Bulldogs advanced to a Super Regional last season, going 1-2. Both losses were by one run, and the close defeats only toughened the Bulldogs' resolve to get back to a Super Regional this year. As of Tuesday, Williams hadn't committed to a starter for the opening game. But it's probably safe to assume that San Jose City will start Coast Conference Golden Gate Pitcher of the Year Don Medlinger, who started all three games when the teams played each other during the regular season. Even though the Bulldogs won two of the three meetings, Medlinger was terrific. The 6-foot-1 right-hander out of Pioneer High absolutely shoved it to CSM the first time around, a 6-0 Jaguars' win March 11. Medlinger threw a complete-game, two-hitter, shutting down a CSM team that had scored over 10 runs in four of its previous six contests. Two weeks later, Medlinger was on the hook for the loss despite pitching well. He allowed three runs -- one earned -- over seven innings in the Bulldogs' 7-3 victory. CSM and SJCC last played April 22, a 6-3 decision in favor of the Bulldogs. This time, CSM got eight hits off Medlinger, who yielded two earned runs in 5 1/3 innings. Williams is confident if Medlinger does go, his hitters will make the necessary adjustments. "He's got a great arm," Williams said. "We don't know if they're going to pitch him, but if they do, our guys will be ready." The Bulldogs didn't play Fresno City this year but did beat Sacramento City. This is one of CSM's best hitting teams Williams -- now in his 16th season at CSM -- has had. What makes the Bulldogs' lineup so tough is it has tremendous balance. One through nine, CSM is loaded with talented batters who know how to work the count and get the job done. CSM is particularly dangerous with Justin Maffei hitting No. 2 and sluggers Joey Wallace and O'Koyea Dickson batting cleanup and No. 5, respectively. During the regular season, Wallace led the team with a .421 average, 56 hits and 49 RBIs while being the only player to start all 36 games. The sophomore was named the co-Coast Golden Gate Player of the Year, along with Chabot's Nick Bartolone. "With Joey and O'Koyea (10 home runs) hitting back to back, that's pretty tough to pitch to," Williams said. "And you have a guy like Justin Maffei swinging the bat extremely well and hitting gets contagious. Our lineup is so strong from top to bottom that we've been able to make moves to combat (whatever the opposition is doing) and create (different type of) matchups (we think can be in our favor)."