Alpine Majors finish off Superbowl sweep

“This is a great Alpine squad,” Alpine manager Drew Allen said. “I’ve never coached a team that can hit like this.”

The Alpine Majors Superbowl All-Stars looked like an older version of their Minors counterparts. Alpine got another strong offensive output and then rode a dominant pitching performance to the win.

The game was almost a carbon copy of the Minors Superbowl game: Alpine took an early lead, withstood a San Mateo rally and then broke the game open late. Alpine scored two in the top of the second, one in the third, two more in third and four more in the top of the sixth to ice the game.

That was more than enough offense for Alpine starting pitcher Lane Okarma, who was nearly unhittable in five innings of work. He didn’t allow a hit until Abraham Calderon singled to lead off the bottom of the fifth inning. San Mateo did manage to score a pair of runs against Okarma in the bottom of the second, but they were both unearned.

“I’m proud of Lane,” Allen said. “He was injured much of the [regular] season and he pitched his heart out (Wednesday).”

Allen said Okarma was allowed to bat during the regular season and played first base, having to underhand the ball back to the pitcher. Wednesday was his first start of the season and he was nails, striking out seven.

“[Alpine] played a good game,” San Mateo manager Brian Yoshino said. “Their pitcher was solid.”

Alpine let a chance to score in the first inning go by the wayside, but it capitalized in the second. Brandon Butler led off the inning with a double to the gap in right-center, followed by back-to-back walks Bruce Melendez and Guy Ngaloafe to load the bases.

That brought No. 9 hitter Max Killen to the plate, who on a 2-2 pitch, lofted a sacrifice fly to right field. Butler scored on the play, avoiding a tag attempt up the line by the San Mateo catcher, forcing Butler into an awkward slide at the plate.

JJ Barresi, batting No. 10, then followed with an RBI single to put Alpine up 2-0. It could have added more when Aaron Hanebrink fouled out for the second, with the runner at third apparently scoring. But San Mateo appealed to third and the runner was called out for leaving the bag too soon and the inning was over.

Allen said it was the top of the order that led Alpine to an 11-1 semifinal win over Menl0-Atherton, but it was the bottom of the order that jumpstarted the offense in the title game Wednesday.

“This team is such a deep hitting team that they feed off each other,” Allen said.

San Mateo capitalized on the momentum shift by tying the score in the bottom of the inning. Calderon and Aidan Yoshino drew back-to-back walks to lead off the inning. Brandon Tsai followed and hit a ball to left field that was misplayed for an error, with Calderon scoring from second to cut the Alpine lead in half.

The game was tied two batters later when Tarik Shamieh drove in Yoshino with a groundout to shortstop.

It wasn’t tied for long as Alpine retook the lead in the third with an RBI single from Damiaan Juelsgaard, plating Adam Gross, who had led off the inning with a single to right.

Alpine extended its lead in the top of the fourth, scoring three more runs. With one out, Jackson Allen reached on an infield hit and Butler singled. Butler had two of Alpine’s eight hits and scored twice.

A line drive was caught for the second out before Ngaloafe was hit by a pitch. Killen then picked up his game-high second RBI of the game with a flare to shallow left field to drive in Jackson Allen. Butler would end up scoring on a head’s up play when he noticed no one was covering the plate and he scooted home to put Alpine up 5-2.

Meanwhile, Okarma was dealing. He retired 10 of 11 batters from the third inning to the fifth, getting back-to-back strikeouts to end the fifth and end his day.

In the sixth, Alpine tacked on four more runs, with Jackson Allen, Butler and Ngaloafe all driving in runs.

San Mateo managed to get one more across in the bottom of the sixth, with Shamieh reaching on an error to lead off the frame and scoring on a sacrifice fly from Kaleb Grundman.

“[Alpine] put the ball in play and made more plays than we did,” Brian Yoshino said.