Menlo-Atherton baseball beats Burlingame 9-4 in the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division opener for both teams

Did M-A manager Jordan Paroubeck have any concerns?

“Internally, there is usually a lot of chaos,” Paroubeck admitted. “(But) I felt we were battled tested coming into league.”

Wednesday, the Bears put those early-season struggles behind them, for a game anyway, as they knocked the Burlingame starter out after three innings, building a 5-1 lead on their way to a convincing 9-4 win at Washington Park in Burlingame.

“We worked on our approach (at the plate) the last couple of weeks. It was nice to see it blossom,” Paroubeck said. “It was really awesome.”

That approach was to be patiently aggressive, but M-A (1-0 PAL Bay, 2-5 overall) didn’t wait long to get the bats going as the Bears strung together four hits and scored two runs in the first inning.

After a line-drive out to left field by leadoff hitter Owen Coupe on a 3-1 count, Ryder Kelly got the offense going by jumping on the first pitch he saw and driving it into the gap in left-center field for a double. He would narrowly steal third and scored on an Oliver Coupe bloop single to center on his second pitch of the at-bat.

MJ Ellazar, who was 3 for 3 with two RBIs and a run scored, nearly had an RBI in the first as he sent the second pitch he saw nearly into the gap in right-center, but Burlingame centerfielder Grayson Howard cut it off, keeping runners at first and third.

Lucas Ten Vaanholt then came through with a first-pitch flare down the left-field line for an RBI double.

But Burlingame(0-1, 4-3) starter Daniel MacMillan got back-to-back strikeouts to end the threat. When the Panthers then scratched out a run in the bottom of the second, they were down only 2-1. Slade Flores started the inning with a leadoff single. Oscar Osuna Lopez followed with a sacrifice bunt and that’s when chaos ensued.

M-A third baseman Oliver Coupe came charging in to field the ball and throw Osuna Lopez out at first. But with no one covering third, Flores never stopped rounding second and headed to third.

Meanwhile, M-A pitcher Caden Lewis broke for third, calling for the ball. He made the catch on the run and he and Flores both made head-first dives to the bag, with Flores avoiding the tag and was ruled safe at third.

He then scored on a safety squeeze from Jean-Luc Uharriet.

But that would be the only blemish against Lewis as the sophomore beat the Panthers with his doggedness on the mound.

Working methodically, almost daring the Burlingame batters to blink first and step out the box, Lewis had the Panthers uncomfortable all game long. Lewis would work six innings, allowing the one run while scattering six hits. He struck out four, but more importantly, walked none.

“Wow,” Paroubeck said when asked about Lewis. “After the third inning, he wanted to call his own game. I don’t usually do that. … He didn’t like how many fastballs I was calling. His slider and changeup were working.

“I told my (assistant) coach, ‘I think he’s in a flow state.’”

While Lewis certainly played into the Panthers’ problems, they didn’t help their own cause as M-A catcher, Joseph Dresch, only a freshman, twice picked Burlingame base runners off base. He cut down a runner at second in third inning and got a runner at first in the fourth.

Meanwhile, after going scoreless in the second, M-A took control of the game with three runs in the third inning. Kelly — who was 2 for 3 with a double, triple, RBI and two runs scored — led off the inning by getting drilled in the thigh. He went to second on a groundout and then hobbled home on an Ellazar single to center.

Ten Vaanholt took a pitch in the ribs and with two outs, Max Brubacher delivered a two-run single to right to put the Bears up 5-1.

They tacked on three more runs in the fourth, with Kelly ripping an RBI, standup triple to deep left field, Ellazar collecting his second RBI in as many innings with a sacrifice fly and Ten Vaanholt rounding out the rally with his second RBI of the game.

The Bears rounded out their scoring in the top of the fifth on a Joseph Pagee run-scoring double.

Burlingame scratched out three runs against the M-A bullpen, Howard, Drew Gall collecting RBIs and the third scoring via a wild pitch.

“We have such a young team,” Paroubeck said. “I knew there would be some hiccups along the way.”