No Central Coast Section repeat for Burlingame baseball

For four innings, the Panthers kept that goal within their sights as Burlingame junior left-hander Holden Glavin and Monterey sophomore right-hander Nate Wedderburn locked horns in a spirited pitching duel. Then came the landslide in the fifth, with the No. 4 Toreadores (17-13) rallying for five runs en route to a 7-0 victory to claim the CCS Division III title.

“It fell apart,” Panthers manager Shawn Scott said. “We made some mental mistakes tonight and they did a good job of capitalizing. When you’ve got a pitcher throwing the ball the way that young man was throwing the ball, you can’t give them extra outs. And we did that, and they capitalized.”

For a Burlingame team that hit just .245 this season, looking up at a 5-0 lead was all but an insurmountable task, certainly against Wedderburn. The sophomore earned the win by going the distance with a three-pitch shutout.

“It was a great outing all night,” Glavin said. “I mean, he shoved. That was one of the best pitchers we faced all year. It was good to compete. And mentally they just got the best of me.”

Wedderburn was electric. The unassuming 5-11 sophomore made his claim as the CCS strikeout king with 11 punch-outs on the night.

Wedderburn entered the night two strikeouts behind the CCS leader, San Mateo left-hander Austin Lachappelle, but went blazing into the top spot on the leaderboard in the second inning and never looked back. He now has 125 strikeouts on the year.

Glavin kept pace with some strikeout stuff of his own. The senior pitched through a single and a walk in the second inning by striking out the side. He’d go on to total six punch-outs in the game. But the Panthers’ most energizing moment came in the third inning, when Monterey’s speedy leadoff hitter Cam Miramontes slashed a hot shot to the left side for Burlingame shortstop Johnny Suarez, who made a backhanded dive to knock it down, gather and fire a strike across the diamond to get Miramontes by a quarter step.

“It’s just about grit,” Burlingame third baseman Dexter Quisol said of Suarez’s gem. “Just playing hard and putting everything on the field. It’s the last game for a lot of us, so we were just trying to leave it all out on the field.”

And the Panthers looked to be riding a wave of momentum as they returned to their third-base dugout in the middle of the third inning.

“Like we were ready to roll,” Suarez said. “But sometimes it just doesn’t roll your way.”

Things went south in the fifth when the Toreadores sent 10 batters to the plate, with a rally set up for free. Wedderburn led off with a four-pitch walk, before Pablo Sanchez got hit by a pitch. Then with the Burlingame infield in motion expecting a bunt, left-handed hitting Goose Garrett, the Toreadores’ cleanup batter, shot a single through the left side to drive home Wedderburn with the first run of the game.

Glavin battled back with a quick strikeout on a mean breaking pitch. But Monterey countered with a clutch at-bat from Matt Mewborn, who raked a two-run double into the left-field corner to give the Toreadores a 3-0 lead.

Monterey didn’t stop there. After an infield single by Dylan Page knocked Glavin out of the game, the Toreadores went to work against Burlingame reliever Chris Walsh. Bam Reyes drew a walk to load the bases, and No. 9 hitter Ray Lemaire followed with a walk to push home a run. Miramontes then worked the count full before smacking a grounder to the left side of the infield, with Quisol diving to his left for a nice stop to get an out at second base, but Page scored easily on the play to make it 5-0.

The approach didn’t change much for the Panthers, who have been masters of the small-ball attack all season.

“Trying to chip away and trust out pitching and our defense, cause that’s kind of what we were built on this year,” Scott said. “and just hopefully get a run here and run there and hold them. But their pitcher was outstanding. You have to give them credit for making the plays. And they made zero mental errors.”

Monterey added two insurance runs in the sixth with an RBI triple from Garrett, and an RBI single by Russo. Right-hander Ryan Kall closed the game out for Burlingame with two innings of work.

“We had a great season and we left it all out on the field,” Glavin said. “Obviously we wish it could have gone another way. But I think the most important part was just celebrating our seniors. They’ve been here for four years giving everything they have. Everything they have, they’ve dedicated four years of their life to this program. For a lot of them, this has meant more to them than anything else in their high school career. … I know I’m going to remember this team. This team has been awesome.”