Bgame gets no-hit, wins

Torpey fired a no-hitter but the No. 8-seed Panthers (14-10 overall) scratched out a run on a wild pitch to the backstop and advanced with a 1-0 win over No. 9 Pioneer-San Jose (14-14). Burlingame sophomore Keunho Kim dashed home as the ball skipped in the dirt and rattled around the notorious Washington Park backstop.

“It goes all the way back and ricochets and can go anywhere,” Burlingame starting pitcher Noah Larkin said. “So, when it goes all the way back ... they’re guaranteed at least one extra base.”

Larkin turned in a gem of his own, needing just 71 pitches to go the distance for a four-hit shutout. The sophomore left-hander struck out five and walked none, relying on some rangy defense by Kim in center field and Preston Lau in left before settling in through the middle innings.

“He threw great,” Burlingame manager Shawn Scott said. “He threw all his pitches for a strikes, had a good rhythm, stayed ahead in the count. They hit some balls hard but right at us. But he pitched ahead and did a great job of controlling the running game … but the big thing for him is no walks.”

Torpey matched him inning for inning through the first five innings though. The right-hander used a two-pitch mix with a dominant fastball to match his season-high with 12 strikeouts.

“I told my guys to cut their swings down, put the ball in play and see what happens,” Scott said.

The strategy paid off in the sixth.

Kim reached base on an infield error, hitting a slow bounder to the right side of the infield that Pioneer’s second baseman charged but couldn’t field cleanly. Kim went on to steal 180 feet, swiping second base with close play on a feet-first slide, then later stealing third base off the pitcher.

“We had a plan of attack on certain balls in the dirt with it being 0-0 so late and their pitcher being so dominant,” Scott said. “So, we had to attack on balls in the dirt.”

With his legs already in gear, it didn’t take much to prompt Kim take a shot at home. So, when Torpey bounced ball four on a walk to Chase Funkhouser, the speedy sophomore Kim turned it into the game’s only run.

“It felt really nice to finally have some support, some runs,” Larkin said. “It was good to get out there knowing if I got those three outs, we would win.”

In the top of the seventh, a similar play saw Burlingame catcher Alex McMaster set the stage for a 1-2-3 inning. Larkin opened the frame with a strikeout, but the third strike on a curveball in the dirt could have spelled disaster. But McMaster, a senior catcher, blocked it and threw the runner out at first.

The closest Burlingame came to recording a hit was in the fifth when Emilio Flores belted a line drive to right field. Scott said on any other day, the ball could have carried over the right fielder’s head. But with the wind knocking it down, it made for a can of corn.

With the win, Larkin improves his record to 5-2. The sophomore has worked in the Burlingame starting rotation since the outset of the season. Wednesday marked the first complete game of his varsity career.

Burlingame now advances to the quarterfinals of the Division II bracket. The Panthers travel to face No. 1 Monterey at Sollecito Park Saturday at 1 p.m.