San Carlos can’t close out Paly in juniors play

San Carlos will need the “if necessary” game Saturday morning as Palo Alto jumped on San Carlos early, scoring twice in the top of the first inning and then adding on throughout the game on its way to a 10-0, six-inning, mercy-rule victory at Flanagan Field at San Carlos’ Burton Park.

“We’re not looking to lose any games,” said San Mateo manager Liam Fairbairn.

And San Carlos hadn’t lost. It opened the tournament June 23 with a 17-3 win over Menlo-Atherton. It followed that with a second-round, 7-0 win over Half Moon Bay before beating Redwood City, 8-5, in the winners’ bracket semifinals. In the winners’ bracket final, San Carlos slipped past Belmont-Redwood Shores, 3-2.

Palo Alto, on the other hand, cruised in its first-round game, beating Pacifica, 8-1. But Belmont-Redwood Shores relegated Palo Alto to the losers’ bracket following a 13-6 decision. Palo Alto then ran roughshod through the losers’ bracket, outscoring Half Moon Bay, Pacifica and Belmont-Redwood Shores by a combined score of 38-5.

Palo Alto continued its hot hitting in Game 1 of the championship series against San Carlos. It got contributions up and down its 14-man lineup as Palo Alto collected nine hits and stole nine bases.

Palo Alto wasted little time in getting on scoreboard, scoring twice in the first inning. With one out, Justin Fung singled to center before stealing second and third.

Turns out he could have just stayed at first. After a strikeout, cleanup hitter Adrian Lee came to the plate and on a 3-1 pitch, launched a two-run home run to right field to put Palo Alto up 2-0.

That would be more than enough offensive support for Palo Alto pitcher Adi Weiner, who was nearly unhittable. Sporting a blazing fastball and curveball he could get over for a strike, San Carlos struggled to get anything going offensively.

Weiner pitched all six innings for Palo Alto, on just 68 pitches, while scattering four San Carlos hits.

“[Weiner] pitched great,” Fairbairn said. “He throws hard. He threw a lot of strikes and kept his pitch count low, which is important in Little League.”

San Carlos’ best chance to score came in the second inning. Devin DeBono opened the inning with a bloop single to center that appeared to be caught before popping out of the centerfielder’s glove.

DeBono was subsequently erased at second base, however, when Cole Hymer picked up a one-out single to right, with DeBono being thrown at second. Logan Deitrich reached on a bloop single, but the rally died on a groundout to second base.

The only other hit San Carlos would collect came on a Max Lavrer single in the bottom of the fourth, but he ran San Carlos out of the inning on an amusing steal attempt.

With Hugh Ford at the plate, Lavrer broke for second. The catcher’s throw beat him, but he jumped out the way of a tag attempt and managed to touch the bag. His momentum, however, pulled him off the bag and he simply headed to third, got caught in a rundown and was tagged out.

Weiner got the next two batters to get out of the inning.

“We hit the ball hard,” Fairbairn said. “They played good defense.”

The Palo Alto offense, on the other hand, was humming along. After going scoreless in the second, Palo Alto scored two runs in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings to get to 10. In the third, the bottom of the Palo Alto came alive. Sam Bogart and Sho Newman had back-to-back doubles to put runners on second and third. Cole Kristofferson struck out, but the third strike was in the dirt and the San Carlos catcher sailed his throw over first base, allowing both base runners to score.

In the fourth, Lee led off the inning with his second homer of the game — another shot to right. Seve Noh drove in the other run. In the fifth, Newman drove in a run when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, followed by an Isaac Fredericson sacrifice fly to make it 8-0.

Palo Alto got to the 10-run mark on an RBI single from Marco Aradazza and a bases-loaded walk to Battle Scott to round out the scoring in the top of the sixth.

The two teams will run it back at 10 a.m. Saturday morning, with the winner taking home the title.

“We came out a little flat (Friday). Bu think they’ll come out really strong (Saturday),” Fairbairn said. “We saved some pitching.”