Burlingame softball blows up in the fourth inning, ousted by Monterey in the Central Coast Section Division III semis

After posting a 10-0 win over rival Mercy in the first round Saturday, the sixth-seeded Panthers took on No. 7 Monterey in a semifinal game at Capuchino Tuesday night.

And the two teams went back and forth early on, with the Toreadors scoring, only to see Burlingame answer back.

But the Panthers had no answers for the ’Dores in the fourth, as they scored five time to propel them into Saturday’s CCS Division II championship game following a 10-3 victory.

“Can’t win them all,” said Burlingame head coach Al Del Rosso.

Once again, Del Rosso employed a multiple-prong pitching approach and it worked to perfection — until Tuesday. But to be fair, none of the four pitchers the Panthers employed got away unscathed as all four gave up runs as Monterey scored in six of the seven innings.

“That’s what we did all year,” Del Rosso said.

The quartet of pitchers didn’t pitch all that poorly, but they couldn’t seem to get the outs when they were needed. They also didn’t get a lot of help from the defense as the Panthers committed five errors on the day.

And it was 1-0 before Burlingame (17-9) came to the plate as Monterey (15-10) took a lead in the top of the first inning. Jenna Deese had a one-out single and ended up scoring without a hit. She went to second when Denae Lee was hit by a pitch and ended up scoring on an error.

But Burlingame was up to the task, tying the game in the bottom of the inning. With one out, Alexis Mah, a freshman shortstop who was called up to varsity as PAL Ocean Division play started, got the rally going with a walk and went to second on a passed ball. After a strikeout, Kiley Lyons came through with a two-0ut, RBI single to center to tie the score at 1-all.

Monterey came right back with a run in the top of second to retake the lead. Emery Jennings blasted a one-out triple to right and came in to score on a Brooklyn Yamashita two-out triple to put the Dores up 2-1.

They increased their lead to 3-1 with another run in the top of the third, with Deese drilling a leadoff triple and scoring on Kayleekai Manglona RBI single to left.

But the Panthers got back in the game with two runs in the bottom of the third to tie the game at 3-all. Leadoff hitter Maddy Koo led off the inning with an infield hit and stole second. She cruised home after Brooke Arce crushed an opposite-field, wind-aided triple to right. If not for the swirling gusts, the ball might have carried out, but the Monterey rightfielder got all twisted up trying to make the play in the win.

The game was tied at 3 one batter later as Lyons came through with her second RBI of the game, a single to center.

But after collecting four hits in the first three innings, the Panthers had only three over in their final four innings as Monterey starting pitcher Nicole Seal finally settled in.

“She was throwing the rise ball and the wind was creating havoc,” Del Rosso said.

Monterey responded with five runs in the fourth to take the lead for good. The Dores sent 10 batters to the plate, but they only managed two hits as they took advantage of a pair of physical errors and a couple more mental ones.

But one of those hits was massive — a three-run homer off the bat of Lee that gave Monterey a 6-3 lead and added two more runs to go up 8-3.

The Dores added a ninth run in the fifth on an error and they rounded out the scoring with another run in the seventh.

“When you get down, it eliminates things you can do,” Del Rosso said.