Burlingame silences Half Moon Bay

Half Moon Bay came out fired up, chattering away and making plenty of noise in the top of the first inning. The Burlingame bench remained quiet. The Panthers let their play do the talking.

First baseman Shane Arslan drove in four runs and pitcher Danny March took a no-hitter into the seventh inning before settling for a one-hitter in 6 1/3 innings as Burlingame pounded the Cougars 8-2.

Despite not giving up a hit until the final inning, not too many people realized March had a no-hitter going - including March.

"I didn't really realize it until I got to the dugout when (reliever) Corey (Edwards) came in," March said. "I guess I got a little tired. I hadn't thrown that many pitches in a while."

It would be easy to lose sight of a no-hitter the way the game went. Half Moon Bay (9-2 PAL, 15-4 overall) worked three walks off of March, had two batters hit by pitches and three other runners reach base on fielder's choices. Heck, Half Moon Bay even scored an unearned run in the third inning.

But the Cougars didn't produce a hit until Mike Corbett's solid single up the middle with one out in the seventh inning.

"When Danny's on, and I don't think he had his best stuff tonight, he's capable of throwing a no-hitter," said Burlingame manager Rich Sciutto.

Arslan made March's job a lot easier. The hulking first baseman gave Burlingame (8-3, 12-10) a quick 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. After leadoff hitter Drew Shiller was hit by a Nick Colvin pitch, Arslan came to the plate with one out. On a 2-0 pitch, he blasted a shot deep over the left-field fence. The ball was not coming down when it hit a tree behind the fence on the bomb that was estimated at about 400 feet.

"It was definitely important to jump on them and set the tone. We started a little slow on Wednesday so we wanted to come out and score some runs early and put the pressure on them," Arslan said. "[The pitch] was a 2-0 fastball, middle in. I was expecting it."

After Half Moon Bay cut the lead in half when Ricky Simms stole home on the back end of a double steal that was made possible when a Burlingame error kept the inning alive, Arslan struck again in the bottom of the fifth.

In fact, the Panthers scored four runs in the fifth with two outs to break the game open. With one out, March legged out an infield hit and Shiller reached on an error. After a line-drive out to right field, both runners moved up on a Colvin wild pitch. Arslan brought them both home when he blooped a single to shallow left to give the Panthers a 4-1 lead.

But they weren't done. Mike Coccelatto followed with a single and he and Arslan each moved up a base on another wild pitch. Bryce Gotthardt rounded out the scoring with a two-run double to fence in left field.

"[We] just started banging the ball," Sciutto said.

The Panthers continued the offensive assault in the sixth inning, tacking on two more runs, again with two outs. Mike Butterfield led off the inning with a single before Shiller came to the plate with two outs. On a 3-2 pitch, Shiller drilled a pitch into the right-center field gap to drive in pinch runner Tom Becerra. Josh Wiseman, pinch running for Shiller, came around to score when Arslan pop up behind first base was missed by the Half Moon Bay first baseman.

Despite knowing that the Panthers had three weeks to make up three games in the standings coming into the week, Sciutto was not about to get ahead of himself.

"(The approach is) one game at a time," Sciutto said. "These kids read the papers, they see the standings, they know what needs to be done.

"Next week may tell the story. We still have four more games. We have to take care of business in our house."