Burlingame baseball maximizes chances

So while the Panthers managed only six hits, they turned them into four runs as they topped visiting Aragon 4-2 to remain undefeated and atop the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division standings.

“When you can pull [defenders] out of position and minimize routine plays, you tend to score more runs than if you just play station-to-station baseball,” said Burlingame manager Shawn Scott.

That’s why you’ll see the Panthers using the sacrifice bunt to get runners into scoring position; why Scott will start base runners on the pitch and why they’ll take the extra base whenever they can — Burlingame puts pressure on defenses.

“[Burlingame is] very well coached,” said Aragon manager Lenny Souza. “They did a great job today.”

And while putting pressure on the defense is important, it’s also important to take advantage of opportunities and, in the end, Burlingame (3-0 PAL Bay, 8-4 overall) did that better than Aragon (3-2, 9-3).

The Dons couldn’t take advantage of some early chances and it came back to haunt them. In the top of the first, Aragon leadoff hitter Addison Yeh singled up the middle. The Dons can play small-ball, too, and Souza went with a sacrifice bunt from Ryan Fernandez to get Yeh into scoring position.

But Burlingame starter Blake Dempsey got out of the jam, getting back-to-back groundouts to keep Aragon off the board.

In the second, Burlingame third baseman Dexter Quisol made the play of the day — on a simple tag out.

Aragon’s Alan Tanielu led off the inning with a walk. Noah Frandsen followed and singled to right field, with Tanielu tearing around second base and heading to third.

Quisol was standing near the third-base bag as if there would be no play. But suddenly, Quisol stuck his glove out, received a perfect throw from right fielder Charlie Dohemann and was waiting to tag out Tanielu, who did not even attempt a slide as he was completely deked by Quisol.

“The difference in the game could have been a play at third,” Souza said. “That’s a high-level mental play (by Quisol).

“That’s a big play by the Burlingame third baseman.”

Said Scott: “My coaches work very hard with them on things of that nature.”

Tanielu was only the first out of the inning, but it took the wind out the Dons’ sails. Although Ronin Lee would draw a walk to put runners on first and second, Dempsey, again, wiggled out of trouble, getting a called third strike and a groundout to end the threat.

And of course it was Dohemann, who threw out Tanielu, who got Burlingame’s first scoring rally going in the bottom of the second. Leading off, No. 6 hitter Dohemann fell behind 1-2 to Aragon starter Ashton Moniz-Witten. In complete control to that point, Moniz-Witten hung a fastball to Dohemann, who shot an opposite-field double to right.

Charlie Happ came up and quickly fell behind 0-2. Dohemann was running on the two-strike pitch and Happ slapped a single up the middle to center field, with Dohemann scoring easily on the play for a 1-0 Burlingame lead.

There was a scary sequence in the top of the third when with one out, Aragon’s Fernandez hit a line drive off the chest of Dempsey, who stayed with the play, scrambled after the ball and threw him out at first base.

The Burlingame trainer, Scott and the home plate umpire all converged on Dempsey, who stood his ground and never went down. After a quick checkup, Dempsey threw a couple of practice pitches and stayed in the game.

Scott said he wanted Dempsey to stay in the game.

“It was more important for him than for the team,” Scott said. “To take one off the chest and throw strikes and throw strikes with authority (was huge).”

Dempsey, again got out of the inning unscathed and the Panthers doubled their lead in the bottom of the third on a Ryan Kall sacrifice fly.

But Aragon finally got to Dempsey in the top of the fourth, scoring twice to tie the game. Tanielu led off with a walk, Lee drew a one-out walk and Schuyler Ng singled to shallow center to load the bases with two outs.

This time, the Dons came through with the big hit as Yeh rifled a shot down the first-base line and into right field for a two-run single.

Burlingame, however, snatched the momentum right back with two runs in the bottom of the fourth, using a hit batter, a sacrifice bunt and RBIs from Happ and Lou Martineau to put the Panthers up 4-2.

After that, the Burlingame bullpen closed things. Chris Walsh, a 6-3, 185-pound senior transfer from St. Ignatius, made his Burlingame debut and was dominant, retiring nine of the 10 batters he faced to earn the save.

“I would have liked to see a little more hitting from us,” Souza said. “I don’t feel like we lost. We just got beat.”