Burlingame baseball team grinds out another win, beats Hillsdale 5-0 for second straight shutout

“That’s what we talk about all the time,” said Burlingame manager Shawn Scott. “Pitching and defense. Pitching has been doing their job and the defense in making big plays.”

All of that was showcased when Burlingame, the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division leaders, hosted a Hillsdale team that is going in the opposite direction. The Panthers handed the the Knights a 10-0 whipping to open the two-game series Monday and Burlingame extended Hillsdale’s scoreless streak to 14 innings as three Panthers pitchers combined six-hit 5-0 shutout.

The 10-run output Monday notwithstanding, Burlingame (7-2 PAL Bay, 13-7 overall), once again, struggled to hit the ball, as the Panthers managed just four hits and none for extra bases. But hits aren’t the only way to get on base and station-to-station baseball is not the only way to move runners around.

And Burlingame has proven adept at both. The Panthers drew six walks, good for 540 feet and once on base, the Panthers pilfered seven bases, getting caught once. That’s another 630 feet of baseline.

When it’s put that way, that’s a lot of traffic on the base paths for the Panthers.

“We’ve been focused mainly on plate discipline (during practice),” Scott said. “It seems to be paying off.”

Hillsdale (2-7, 9-11) had its chances. The Knights had base runners on in every inning, with runners in scoring position in the first, second, sixth and seventh innings, but could not come up with the clutch hit.

“We’re just not playing solid baseball,” said Hillsdale manager Willie Baroncini said of his team that has six of its last seven games and now has lost five of its last six Bay Division games.

“It’s been wearing on us.”

Burlingame got all the runs it would need in the bottom of the first inning. Grayson Howard led off with a single up the middle, stole second and went to third on a Drew Gall sacrifice bunt. Mark O’Grady was hit by a pitch and went to second on passed ball before Oscar Osuna-Lopez walked to load the bases.

That brought up Slade Flores, who sliced an opposite-field single to right to drive in both Howard and O’Grady for a 2-0 lead.

Burlingame starting pitcher Nash Trautwein did a good job wiggling out of trouble. He stranded a runner at third in the first inning and then escaped a bases-loaded jam in the second.

In the third, Trautwein gave up his fourth hit, but he avoided a potential Hillsdale rally with a pickoff of a base runner for the second out of the inning. He got a flyout to right to end his day.

Dan Sheehan was the first out of the bullpen in relief of Trautwein and Sheehan went the next 2 2/3 innings, allowing two hits. Flores then got the final four outs, but not before walking the bases loaded in the top of the seventh.

With the Panthers’ struggling at the plate this season, it puts an onus on all the other aspects of the game and they have been excelling. In addition to the picked-off runner, the Panthers turned an odd double play. In the top of the sixth, Parker Jessup led off with a single to bring up Tommy Schultz, who hit a double-play grounder to shortstop Jean-Luc Uharriet.

Jessup was leading off the bag and appeared to try to screen Uharriet off the ball, but not only did the shortstop field it cleanly, he quickly applied a tag on Jessup before firing to Flores at first base for a 6-3 double play.

“We’ve talked about seizing opportunities and stealing outs,” Scott said. “We’re hyper focused on the small things.”

Burlingame doubled its lead in the third inning, scoring a pair of runs on just one hit. But the Panthers did draw four walks in the inning, stole three bases, and moved up and scored on a pair of wild pitches.

Gall led off the third with a walk and stole second. O’Grady then hit a hot shot off the glove of the Hillsdale second baseman and the ball trickled into shallow center field, enabling Gall to score for a 3-0 lead.

O’Grady, who went to second on the throw home eventually moved to third following walks to Osuna-Lopez and Flores, with O’Grady scoring on a wild pitch to put the Panthers up 4-0.

They tacked on one more run in the sixth when Ben Sakal reached on an error, went to second on a wild pitch, stole third and then scored on a Charlie Cheng single to left.

“I figured if we pitched and played defense well enough, we’d manufacture enough runs to be in games,” Scott said.

Despite the series being over, the week isn’t over for either team. Both will be playing at Oracle Park this weekend, with Burlingame taking on Capuchino at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Hillsdale and Carlmont playing in the San Francisco Giants’ home park at 4:30 p.m. Saturday.

“We just got to go play baseball and have fun,” Baroncini said.