Carlmont baseball swings way into first place

Carlmont (3-1 PAL Bay, 11-4-1 overall) banged out 13 hits, including a pair of third-inning home runs from each Tanner Van Why and Aidan Kurt. In other words, a day in the life of the Scots.

“We’re putting really nice at-bats together,” Van Why said. “I think what we do in practice is we work situations like this, we go gap-to-gap, we go two strikes. Everyone does their job and that’s why we score all these runs.”

Coming off a gritty 7-5 win over M-A (2-2, 6-10) in Wednesday’s first game of the two-game series, Carlmont was content to give Friday’s starting pitcher, senior left-hander Tripp Garrish, some early breathing room.

Garrish got touched for a run in the top of the first inning — M-A strung together three straight hits, capped by an RBI single from cleanup man Ethan Bergen — but the Scots fired right back, sending 10 batters to the plate amid a four-run rally in the bottom of the first. Carlmont went on to score three in second, three in the third, and three more in the fifth.

“Usually from the get-go [Garrish] is completely on it and ready to roll,” Scots manager Ryan Hamilton said. “I think the one issue we have when he pitches is we get a little complacent and we think he’s just going to win the game for us. So, today it was good to see that we put some runs on the board early, consistently, crooked numbers the first three innings. And we were able to take the pressure off him a little bit, which really hasn’t happened a lot so far.”

M-A’s bouts with wildness only added fuel to the Carlmont fire. The Bears used six different pitchers and combined to issue 10 walks and four hit batsmen.

“Early in the season we had a little bit of control issues,” said Bergan, M-A’s senior catcher. “But recently, we’ve been very dominant on the mound. So, I’m not too worried. I think it was just an off day today.”

Jack Wiessinger paced Carlmont with three hits, singling in each his first three at-bats before walking and popping out to the pitcher in his final two plate appearances. The junior shortstop punctuated the first-inning rally with an RBI single, as the Scots overcame the early 1-0 deficit.

“Going up against a good pitcher, we were definitely feeling good to have three hits in a row and get that RBI,” Bergan said. “Going up after that first inning, it felt really good to get some energy behind us. We were hoping to let it carry us through the game but not everything went our way; our pitchers weren’t able to find the zone as well as we thought.”

And the Scots certainly found a comfort level in playing from behind.

“We’re definitely very comfortable,” Wiessinger said. “Tripp, he’s an insane pitcher, best pitcher in the league, I think. He gives up a run, it’s like — he’s probably not going to give up another one for the rest of the game. So, we know if we just get a few (runs) on there, we’ll be fine the rest of the game.”

Garrish settled in nicely, cutting up the strike zone with a crisp fastball, an equalizer changeup and a good sweeping curveball to neutralize left-handed hitters. And while he settled for one hit Friday — a bloop single in the fourth, the only inning in which Carlmont didn’t score — he is the Scots’ leading hitter this season with a .533 battling average.

“I think he’s feared when he’s on the mound, and feared when he’s in the box, which, that sends a big message to the other team,” Hamilton said. “They know who he is. … They know where he is at all times. When he’s coming up, I think that helps our other hitters too, taking some pressure off them. So, he’s a big contributor and he elicits fear from the opponent.”

With one of the best three-four hitter combos in the league in Garrish and cleanup man Jack Vanoncini, the Scots derived their power from the spots in the batting order around them. Van Why, Carlmont’s No. 2 hitter, clubbed a solo homer to lead off the third inning, his first of the year. Kurt, batting in the No. 5 spot, went on to add a two-run bomb later in the inning.

But every spot in Carlmont’s batting order reached base at least twice against M-A’s array of pitcher — with Bears starter Jackson Vontz taking the loss through 1-plus innings of work — a testament to the depth of the team’s lineup, Hamilton said.

“Our whole lineup, pick your poison,” Hamilton said.

M-A added its other run in the fourth inning on a solo home run by senior Joe Meyer, the first of his varsity career. Meyer was 2 for 3 in the game and has now had nine hits in his last 21 at-bats after starting the season in a 1-for-18 rut.

With the win, Carlmont moves into a first-place tie with Burlingame in the PAL Bay Division standings. Burlingame fell 6-3 to Aragon Friday, the Panthers’ first league loss of the year. Aragon, Capuchino and M-A are all in the third-place mix, tied a game back of first-place in the loss column.