Sequoia baseball strikes back with 2-0 win over Capuchino

“I’m probably more impressed with the zero walks than I am with the two hits,” Sequoia manager Mike Doyle said.

After Capuchino (1-1, 10-3) won the opening game of the series Wednesday 7-4, Lanham righted the ship for the Ravens. The right-hander had to fight through a seventh-inning jam to close it out, as Capuchino rallied to get runners at second and third with two outs. Cesar Ceron reached on a two-out error before freshman Lucas Zayac doubled to put a runner at third base for the Mustangs for the first time all day.

“We already made the decision that we were going to let Jack finish it,” Doyle said. “He was either going to lose it or win it.”

Lanham won it, buckling down by going right at Capuchino sophomore Nathan Balch. The junior leveraged the count and induced a routine flyball to center fielder Kevin Furuta to end it.

“You’d think sometimes a kid might be … after 6 2/3 a little tired, and not sure where his mind was after letting the first kid on third base, and he went right at him,” Doyle said.

Sequoia got on the board early, rallying for a run in the first inning against Capuchino starting pitcher Ryan Choi. Dillon Goetz led off with a sharp single to right and advanced to third base on an outfield error. Justin Deppiesse followed with an RBI single to give the Ravens a 1-0 advantage.

In the fifth, Sequoia added on. Furuta — playing his first game of the season in a return from an injury suffered during his winter boys’ basketball season — opened the inning with a double. Goetz moved Fututa to third with a single. Then Cole Kenyon delivered an RBI single to make it 2-0.

But the clutch hits eluded Sequoia for the rest of the day. The Ravens went on to leave seven runners on base.

“We left runners stranded everywhere,” Doyle said. “It should have been more than 2-0 but we have to do a little bit better with hitting with runners on base.”

Cap managed just two hits in the contest, both from Zayac, the Mustangs’ upstart freshman catcher.

The series featured two freshman catchers, with Sequoia this season turning to backstop Logan Mathias after graduating three-year starter JP Boyle. Mathias certainly locked in with Lanham, who threw just 77 pitches, 60 for strikes.

“Logan, for a freshman, is doing fantastic,” Doyle said. “He has exceeded my expectations for a first-year varsity catcher regardless of year. And as a freshman catcher, he’s doing fantastic.”

The last time Sequoia won a PAL Bay Division game was on May 7, 2018, against Menlo School, before being demoted to the Ocean Division the following year. The Ravens were promoted back to the Bay Division after taking second place in the Ocean Division last year and winning the Central Coast Section Division II championship.

This year’s team, however, is redefining itself after a big graduating class in 2021.

“It’s just an exciting group of kids to coach,” Doyle said. “They come in, they put the work in at practice, and I think this team has a lot of upside. They’ve just got to keep doing what they’re doing. … That was a big win for our program this year.”

Burlingame 5, Hillsdale 4

The Panthers (2-0, 7-3) swept their two-game series with the Knights (1-3, 8-4) thanks to a walk-off win Friday at Washington Park.

Burlingame trailed 4-1 in the sixth but rallied for two in the sixth and one in the seventh to tie it before winning it in the eighth. Lou Martineau lifted a sacrifice fly to right field to score AJ Caprini with the game-winner.

Burlingame reliever Charlie Dohemann earned the win in relief, working two perfect innings while striking out two. The senior right-hander’s record improves to 2-0.