Living the dream: Oracle Park hosts six Peninsula Athletic League baseball teams

With an array of celebrations under the lights, HMB’s marathon win was probably the most chaotic. After working three innings of relief, junior Riley Jackson stepped to the plate with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth and promptly roped a single into the right-center field gap to score junior Lane Giannini with the game-winning run.

“It was just freakin’ pandemonium,” Cougars manager Brian Anderson said. “The boys ran out onto the outfield all the way to center field. I couldn’t even catch up with them.”

Adding to the anticipation of the rescheduled weekend games was the three-week postponement. All three games were originally slated for April 10-11, but were rained out.

Last year, only two PAL teams were featured at Oracle Park, with Capuchino triumphing 1-0 over Burlingame. This year, other PAL teams applied to play at the major league venue, with three games being confirmed under the provision each team sell 1,000 tickets good for both the high school game, and for a San Francisco Giants game chosen from a select schedule.

So, for four of the teams, it was their first time playing at Oracle.

“You usually do a pregame motivational speech but there was really no need to do that because they were all so hyped up,” Carlmont manager Ryan Hamilton said. “So, it made my job easier.”

Carlmont 3, Hillsdale 2

Carlmont (6-4 PAL Bay, 11-11 overall) featured two unlikely heroes in its win over Hillsdale. The Scots jumped out to an early 2-0 lead against Knights starting pitcher Hugo Guzman, with a sacrifice fly from senior Ryan Weiss in the first, followed by a run-scoring error in the third to plate sophomore Lucas Chan. Guzman settled in to work six innings, though, as Hillsdale (2-8, 9-12) rallied back to tie it with a pair of RBI singles from junior Curtis Lee to force extras.

Then the bullpens locked horns, as junior Tyler Dang took over for Hillsdale, and junior Ryan Kelly proved a surprise go-to arm for the Scots. Hampered by injury, Kelly had pitched in just one previous game, working 2 1/3 innings March 21, in a 9-3 non-league win over Los Altos. The left-hander was nails Saturday, allowing one hit and two walks through three innings of work to record his first varsity win.

“Just one of the gutsiest performances I’ve seen in a long time from a player who has tremendous heart,” Hamilton said.

The Scots have been extra-inning warriors all season. Their first matchup with Hillsdale, March 25, resulted in a 3-2 win in eight innings. Then, the previous Friday, Carlmont fell 9-4 in eight innings to Menlo School, this before a two-game sweep of the King’s Academy, capped by Friday’s 3-1 victory in a 10-inning marathon.

Saturday, it was junior catcher Ryan Attard who played the hero. Prior to Carlmont’s April 23 loss to Menlo, Attard was scuffling with a .160 batting average on the season. Since then, he has gone 7 for 11, boosting his average to .306 with the game-winning hit against Hillsdale.

Junior Connor Chow got hit by a pitch to lead off the ninth and, after Chow stole second, junior Caden Stinson bunted for a single to put runners at the corners. After an intentional walk to senior Michale Nishikawa loaded the bases, Attard hit a sharp grounder to the right of the drawn-in shortstop. The ball winged off the glove of a diving Brayden Lee to score Chow with the game-winner.

“Pandemonium,” Hamilton said of the celebration. “As always.”

Burlingame 2, Capuchino 1

Burlingame (8-2 PAL Bay, 14-8 overall) maintained its first-place standing in the PAL Bay Division with the same fundamentals its relied upon all season. With the game on the line in the top of the seventh, Panthers manager Shawn Scott conducted his offense to execute two sacrifice bunts, including a textbook suicide squeeze from junior Charlie Cheng to push across the go-ahead run.

“It’s something we preach all the time,” Scott said. “No matter if we’re a good-hitting ball club or we’re not over the course of the season, sometimes you’re going to slump ... so we put that out front every year no matter how well we think we’re going to hit.”

Cap (2-8, 12-11) jumped out to an early lead against Burlingame starting pitcher Mark O’Grady, setting the table with a two-out triple from senior Dominic Fanara, followed by an RBI single from sophomore Jaxon Lazzari. But O’Grady, typically a reliever who was making his first start in nearly two months, settled in to match his career-high with six innings of work.

“He calmed down and was effective,” Scott said.

O’Grady helped his own cause as the Panthers tied it against relief pitcher Fanara in the third, with a hit batsman and a sacrifice bunt settling the stage for the junior’s RBI single to left to score Cheng to tie it 1-all. Then, Burlingame’s small-ball approach struck again. Senior Liam Philibosian led off by reaching on an infield error, and senior Jean-Luc Uharriet battled for a six-pitch at-bat to lay down a sacrifice bunt. Preet Mallen’s single to left put runners at the corners with one out.

Then Cheng executed his third sacrifice bunt of the year to squeeze home Philibosian with what proved to be the game-winning run.

“Cap’s been playing very well as of late and scoring some runs, so I wasn’t overly excited because all it takes is an error and a base hit and they’re back in the game,” Scott said.

The Panthers celebrated plenty after junior left-hander Nash Trautwein battled through two walks in the bottom of the seventh. Typically a starting pitcher, Trautwein earned the first save of his varsity career with a called third strike to end it.

With the win, first-place Burlingame maintains a half-game lead over second-place Menlo, with Menlo-Atherton, Carlmont and the King’s Academy all within striking distance.

Half Moon Bay 3, Sequoia 2

Not only did the Cougars (12-9) suit the big league stage of Oracle Park, they’ve been playing with a major league frequency. HMB’s extra-inning non-league win Friday over Sequoia (12-9) was one of four games over a five-day stretch. Capped by a 5-1 home win Saturday over Scotts Valley, the Cougars won all four of those games.

Friday’s, though, was a 3-hour, 30-minute marathon in its own right — starting at 4:30 p.m. but finishing with all the mystique of a night game.

“We played so long they had to turn the lights on,” Anderson said. “We were saying this is best of both worlds, sunny and night time.”

Left-hander Kai Kung was victimized by HMB’s busy schedule. Having already pitched five innings to pick up the win in last Wednesday’s 6-2 win over Woodside, the senior was only eligible to pitch five innings Saturday per the rule limiting high school pitchers to 10 innings a week. Kung was brilliant Saturday, firing five no-hit innings with eight strikeouts, allowing just one baserunner on a first-inning error.

The Cougars got on the board in the second with a pair of unearned runs against Sequoia starting pitcher Morgan Winfield. Junior Alex Ryan supplied an RBI single before Jackson drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 2-0. But, with Kung out of the game, the Ravens got on the board in the sixth on an RBI single from Cole Hymer. They tied it in the seventh on an RBI single from junior Connor Murray, before Jackson was summoned from the bullpen to escape a bases-loaded, one-out jam.

“That team can hit,” Anderson said. “They swing the bats really well and eventually we had to go to Riley. We weren’t even sure if we were going to use him at all.”

In the ninth, Jacob Couto reached on an error to lead off the inning. A one-out single from junior Cole Giannini and a walk by junior Lane Giannini loaded the bases. Jackson then fouled one pitch off before setting off the celebration with a game-winning single.

“It was our first walk-off of the season,” Anderson said. “So, you couldn’t write a better script.”