Burlingame baseball strikes back to split series with Carlmont

After Carlmont (6-2, 14-5-1) won Wednesday’s series opener in a 10-2 blowout, the finale came down to a dramatic final inning, where Burlingame broke a 4-4 tie with four runs in the top of the seventh, only to have closing pitcher Ryan Kall hold off a three-run rally by the Scots in the bottom of the inning by stranding the bases loaded to end the game.

“I don’t know where they (Carlmont) keep getting these kids from, but God bless this program,” Panthers manager Shawn Scott said. “They find some battlers and they come out and play baseball.”

Kall had his back up against the wall in the bottom of the seventh but somehow persevered. The senior right-hander entered amid a bases-loaded jam, with the Scots already having pushed a run across on an RBI walk to Tripp Garrish. With his adrenaline pumping, and his fastball not finding the zone, Kall continued the trend, walking the first two batters he faced — Jack Vanoncini and Aidan Kurt — to force home two more runs, making it 8-7 with no outs.

Then Kall’s first two pitches to Carlmont senior Carson Vance were balls before the right-hander started finding the zone.

“I just started to eliminate all the noise that was going on,” Kall said. “It was kind of a loud atmosphere and I just had to kind of zero in and stick to my stuff. I pound the zone and I always have. I knew I could do it.”

Kall bounced back to strike out Vance, then induced an infield pop-out and a fly ball to center fielder Lou Martineau to end it. While the Panthers celebrated with plenty of emotion in the middle of the diamond, it was a stunner for the Scots who stranded seven baserunners in the game, including three in the final frame.

“With bases loaded, tying run on third base, nobody out, we thought we had a chance, and we just didn’t get that job done,” Scots manager Ryan Hamilton said.

It was also a difficult pill to swallow after Carlmont committed three errors in the top of the seventh amid the Panthers’ game-winning four-run rally.

Kall led off the inning by blooping an infield hit just over the reach of Carlmont reliever Tyler Pechetti. Then a sacrifice bunt by Charlie Dohemann saw no outs recorded, as the throw catcher’s throw was mishandled at first base to put runners at second and third.

Burlingame then put on an action play that nearly spelled disaster, as Charlie Happ missed a bunt on a suicide squeeze. Kall was halfway down the line and would have been hung out to dry, but the pitch was boxed by the catcher for a passed ball, allowing Kall to hurry home with the go-ahead run.

Blake Dempsey then reached on an error, and Sean Richardson came through with a two-run single to left through a drawn-in infield. Richardson later moved to third on an infield error and scored on a sacrifice fly by Martineau.

The Scots committed five errors in the game.

“The fielding has been really good all year,” Hamilton said, “and we talked about it all week how if we make an out on every bunt that Burlingame puts down, we will win each game. That was the message this week and obviously that did not happen in the seventh inning, and that really ended up being the difference.”

The topsy-turvy seventh inning belied what was a good pitching matchup between two top-notch left-handers, Holden Glavin for Burlingame and Garrish for Carlmont.

Glavin worked five-plus innings, departing after a solo home run by Vanoncini in the bottom of the sixth to tie it 4-4. Garrish worked five innings, battling through five walks while striking out three.

“Glavin was exactly what we expected him to be,” Scott said. “Garrish was exactly what we expected him to be. Again, I don’t know where they keep getting these guys from, but they keep getting them. Hamilton is doing a great job.”

The Scots got on the board early, striking in the bottom of the first.

Tanner Van Why then made the Panthers pay for a leadoff walk to Collin O’Driscoll, followed by two straight wild pitches, with a hard single just over the third-base bag making it 1-0 Carlmont.

Burlingame had an answer in the second though with a sacrifice fly off the bat of Richardson to tie it. After a two-out walk to No. 9 hitter A.J. Caprini, the Panthers took the lead when the catcher Vanoncini tried to throw behind the back runner, but the throw short-hopped first baseman Kaden Healy and skipped away, allowing Dempsey to score from second, giving Burlingame a 2-1 lead.

The Scots jumped ahead in the fourth when Jack Wiessinger hit a booming two-run double to center to swing Carlmont back out front 3-2.

Then came Carlmont’s man-of-steel moment. In the top of the fifth, Vance went full-on Superman in taking on the left-field fence. The senior absolutely drilled the fence when hauling in a long sacrifice fly off the bat of Kall. Vance crashed into the fence but held on for the out, going face first and earning a welt under his left eye to show for it. As Johnny Suarez jogged home from third with the tying run, Vance had the presence of mind to get the ball back into the infield to hold the back runner at second before taking inventory.

“I saw the ball, I tracked it down, I really didn’t think about the wall,” Vance said. “I was just trying to make a good catch and help the team. … I think adrenaline kind of helped me out. I just kind of got right back up, knew I had to throw the ball in.”

But Burlingame wasn’t done. With two outs and Quisol on second, Happ hit a hard bounder back through the middle. Kurt at second made a nice athletic play by ranging right to nab a high hop with full extension, but as he tried to stop his momentum with a Derek Jeter skip-hop into the outfield, Quisol never stopped running and flew around third to score the go-ahead run on an RBI infield single, giving the Panthers a 4-3 advantage.

“He scored because he had a great break on contact and there was no way I was slowing him down there,” Scott said. “We’ve got to try to push runs across. If we don’t push that run across, we’re still playing.”

The Panthers, who entered the day batting just .212 as a team, are flying high after the emotional win.

“Carlmont being a top 10 CCS team, we know we can compete with anyone in our league, and just about anyone we play against,” Kall said. “So, I think this is big going into CCS, knowing whoever we get matched up with, we can play our game and we can go out and win.”

Even with the loss, the Scots are still in a good position. Burlingame and Carlmont, together, hold a one-game lead over third-place Sequoia — the Ravens moved past Aragon this week with a two-game sweep of the Dons — with six games to go on the league slate.

“We know that we control our own destiny,” Hamilton said. “We’ve just got to go out and win each game and we’re pretty confident that we’ll be able to get that done.”