Menlo-Atherton keeps pace in Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division baseball title race

With Burlingame down to one game on its regular-season schedule, Bears manager Jordan Paroubeck’s team can secure no less than a shared Bay championship by winning its final two league games. The door opened last Friday when Burlingame stumbled with a 4-3 loss at Carlmont.

“We loved it,” M-A junior Merrick Lee said. “We’re gunning for that [first-place] spot in league. We want that really bad. We need things to fall in place, and we need to keep winning.”

M-A and Burlingame have markedly different offenses. The Panthers, despite sitting in first place, rank last in the PAL Bay Division in batting with a .260 team average. M-A ranks second in the league with a .319 team batting average. Only Menlo School is better at .323.

Pitch selection has been the name of the game for the Bears, who got hits from seven of their nine starters Wednesday.

“Seeing a lot of team with good hitters, I realized they don’t chase pitches,” Paroubeck said. “And I think we do a really good job of not chasing pitches, getting in fastball counts. That’s what we want to do. We want to try and attack fastballs.”

The Bears were credited with 11 hits Wednesday, five of them coming from the bottom of the order. Sophomore catcher Lucas Ten Vaanholt ripped a leadoff double in the third inning and later scored, senior Joseph Pagee was 2 for 3 with two RBIs, and Lee, the No. 9 hitter, was 2 for 3 with an RBI and two runs scored.

“I think the bottom of the order has been pretty good,” Lee said. “The whole team’s been raking this whole year. Everyone from top to bottom has been pulling their weight.”

Lee is a testament to how often Paroubeck juggles the lineup. The junior has batted all over the lineup, including leadoff and cleanup.

“I love playing hot hands,” Paroubeck said. “And the hotter the hand is, I just try to move them up the lineup. Sometimes different speeds of guys. But, for the most part, I play hot bats.”

One of the hottest bats in burgundy-and-gold has been freshman Jake Scott, one of three frosh bats in M-A’s regular starting lineup. Twin brothers Owen and Oliver Couple have been varsity starters since the season opener, but not Scott, who started the year on the junior-varsity team.

“Honestly, it was just hitting five, six days a week, just trying to get better so I could get at-bats,” Scott said. “Things started to fall into place and I got some chances to play down (with JV) so I could show what I could do. From there, it was just keeping the same mentality, doing the work, and results are usually going to happen.”

Scott was initially promoted to varsity only to pitch. But a two-home run game in his final JV game prompted a shakeup in the varsity batting order.

“And then he kept getting hits,” Paroubeck said. “And I’m like: ‘Wait a minute!’ And then he hit a grand slam and another home run in a game, and then he had four home runs. And then I told him: ‘Hot bats play.’ And then he never looked back with us.”

After going 2 for 3 with three RBIs Wednesday, the left-handed hitting Scott is now leading M-A in two triple crown categories with four home runs and 21 RBIs. His .432 batting average ranks second on the squad only to senior Masataka Shudo, currently leading the PAL Bay Division with a .452 mark.

M-A’s starting rotation is in a nice rhythm as well. Senior right-hander Caden Lewis is coming off his fourth win over his last four starts Friday in the Bears’ 6-4 win over Capuchino. Lewis is now 6-0 on the year, and is likely to take the ball Friday for the two-game series finale at Hillsdale.

Senior right-hander Max Brubacher earned the abbreviated complete-game victory Wednesday, improving his record to 4-2.

Brubacher got touched for one run in the third. With M-A leading 6-0, the senior opened the frame issuing back-to-back walks to Brayden Lee and Jaden Minahan. Tommy Schultz later produced a sacrifice fly to get the Knights (3-10, 10-15) on the board. Brubacher went on to walk five, hit a batter and throw one wild pitch, but settled in to allow just one run on three hits, while striking out six.

Burlingame (10-3, 17-9) also won Wednesday, 10-5 at the King’s Academy-Sunnyvale, mathematically eliminating third-place Menlo School (8-5, 17-9) from PAL Bay title contention. The Panthers wrap up their season Friday at home against King’s.

“We’re doing a really good job of just worrying about what we can control,” Paroubeck said. “Of course, after each game I look. I just looked right now. ... So, as long as we keep doing our job, I told our guys: ‘Our destiny’s in our hands.’”