The Lounge has never been fortunate enough to witness a baseball no hitter, in person. It appeared that was going to change Friday night as Burlingame pitcher Danny March took a no hitter into the seventh inning against Half Moon Bay.
About the fifth inning, the Lounge looked at his scorebook and turned to a colleague and said in a low voice, "He's throwing a no hitter." The Lounge didn't want to say it too loudly and jinx his chances.
Unfortunately, the Lounge is still waiting to witness a no hitter. With one out, there was a collective groan from media members as Half Moon Bay's Mike Corbett broke up the no-no with a clean single up the middle. March followed that by walking the next batter, which ended his night.
The funny thing is, not too many people realized March allowed only one hit. Not even March knew he had a no hitter going until he was walking to the dugout after he was lifted for reliever Corey Edwards in the seventh. March must have been perplexed when he was greeted near the foul line by the Burlingame dugout, to congratulate him on a fine outing.
"I didn't realize it until I got into the dugout when Corey came in," March said after the game.
Not even Burlingame manager Rich Sciutto was aware of what March accomplished.
"Really?" was Sciutto's reply when asked if he knew March was flirting with a no hitter.
"I don't think anyone knew," said first baseman Shane Arslan said. "He had a lot of stuff working."
If March had been dominating throughout the game, everyone would have been aware of what he was doing. But his performance Friday was one of those rare situations when it would be easy to believe Half Moon Bay had half a dozen hits. March walked three batters and hit two others. There was an error that led to an unearned run and the Cougars got three other runners on base via fielder's choices. So there were plenty of baserunners that led spectators to believe it was just a run-of-the-mill game.
Other than the error in the third, the Burlingame defense was nails. March induced 11 ground ball outs and only three balls were hit to the outfield, all of which were caught.
"Our defense was solid [Friday night]," March said.
***
With the Peninsula baseball season winding down, there are still several crucial games left to play in deciding league championships.
In the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division, Burlingame's two-game sweep over Half Moon Bay last week tightened up the race for the title. Half Moon Bay's lead, which was once three games, is now down to one. The Cougars have two games slated this week with a dangerous El Camino squad while the Panthers take on Carlmont.
In the Ocean Division, Capuchino holds a two-game lead over both Aragon and Menlo. The Dons and Knights will need some help in catching the Mustangs, although Menlo will get a chance to help itself when it travels to San Bruno Friday to face Capuchino, which beat the Knights 4-3 in 12 innings two weeks ago.
In the West Catholic Athletic League, surprising Serra has been at or near the top of the standings all season long after being predicted to finish last. The Padres have followed up big wins over Bellarmine the last couple of weeks with collapses against St. Francis and Mitty. Despite the losses, the Padres are only a half game behind the Bells for first place with two games left to play in the regular season.
Nathan Mollat can be reached by e-mail: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 102. What do you think of this column? Send a letter to the editor: letters@smdailyjournal.com.
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