Burlingame blanks Aragon in opener

In the end, however, Schramm and the Burlingame offense had enough to blank the Dons, 4-0.

"[Our performance] was OK," Sciutto said. "Coming off the preseason, we felt good. We were where we wanted to be.

"But the top of the order is struggling a bit. You don't want to get to that position where we just play well enough to win."

If Sciutto was concerned about his team's performance, imagine where the Panthers will go once everything is firing on all cylinders. Schramm, who said his curveball wasn't working, pitched 4 1/3 innings of no-hit baseball before giving up a bloop single to his Aragon counterpart, Steve Kalush. And the struggling top of the order came up with two runs batted in by leadoff hitter David Tufo.

"We just didn't hit [Wednesday]," said Aragon manager Jeff Hart. "[The team] seemed be swinging well a couple games ago. It seems they went silent at the same time. We didn't hit and we didn't play smart."

Burlingame (1-0 Bay Division, 7-2 overall) took advantage of two Aragon throwing errors in the third inning to score twice. The Dons' poor baserunning on offense also didn't help. Twice Aragon baserunners were doubled off first after flyballs were caught by the Burlingame infielders.

"The run support was awesome and the defense was great," Schramm said. "Our defense has been pretty solid lately."

Schramm's pitching was pretty solid as well on Wednesday. He returned to practice on Friday after missing the previous 10 days. When he took the mound against the Dons, he knew right away that his curveball would not be an effective pitch.

"I knew pretty early I didn't have it," said Schramm, who said the mounds at Burlingame's Washington Park and Aragon were different. "I was falling behind guys. We probably only threw two or three breaking balls the whole game. We like to mix in maybe a quarter off-speed stuff."

Schramm's fastball was all he needed Wednesday. Although he didn't strike anyone out, he was spotting his pitches well and using his defense to his advantage. He threw only 30 pitches through the first three innings, including a five-pitch inning in the second. In the fourth and fifth, however, his pitch-count ballooned to 39. After not pitching a lot over the past couple of weeks, Sciutto decided that was enough.

Hart was baffled by his team's lack of offense.

"Give him credit, he got us out," Hart said, noting his squad appeared to lack patience at the plate. "In the early innings, if we made him work a little harder, we might have gotten to him later."

Burlingame was not a whole lot better offensively, picking up eight hits and four runs against Aragon starter Steve Kalush, who didn't get a lot of support.

"Steve threw a great game," Hart said. "He showed a lot of poise."

Burlingame took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Shane Arslan led off with an infield hit. Following a flyout, Daniel Chu singled and Kevin Scannel walked to load the bases. Tufo followed and on a 1-1 pitch, lifted a flyball to deep right field to score Arslan.

The Panthers added two more runs in the third. With Henry Wrigley on first, Ryan Peterson grounded into what should have been a double play. After forcing Wrigley at second, the throw to first got past David Higgins, allowing Peterson to go to third. Dominic Mitchell put down a sacrifice bunt toward first base. Higgins charged the ball and tried to get Peterson at third. The ball got past the third baseman, allowing Peterson to score. Mitchell stole third and scored on Evan Laurie's infield hit to deep short.

Burlingame scored its final run in the sixth when Tufo doubled home Laurie.

"To get off to a good start was huge," Schramm said. "It was good to come out here and beat these guys at home."

Menlo-Atherton 8, Carlmont 7

The Bay Division lived up to its wide-open reputation when the Bears rallied in the bottom of the seventh to beat a Scots' squad many predict will contend for the title.

Carlmont (0-1, 7-2) scored four times in the top of the seventh to take a 7-4 lead only to watch M-A (1-0, 5-5) win it in the bottom of the inning.

Justin Dove led off the bottom of the seventh with a single and David Klein was hit by a pitch. Alex Bedrosian singled to load the bases and Dominic DiRicco slapped a single to drive in two runs and cut the Carlmont lead to 7-6. Clark Hagman ended the game with a two-run double.