Millbrae rallies for win

"The first week or two, you learn things like that," said San Bruno manager Lee Graf. "As [the players] get more comfortable playing their positions, those mistakes won't be made."

Gotthardt, who sat on the bench for six innings, turned out to be the key guy in Millbrae's win. He led off the top of the seventh by pinch hitting for Tony Loeffler and he ended up drawing a walk and scoring the tying run before driving in the go-ahead run in the eighth.

"He was key," said Millbrae manager Eric Gieseker. "He got the walk to tie the game and got the hit to win the game."

Gotthardt's play made a winner out of pitcher Scott Sobczak, who went the distance for Millbrae. After a rough start in which he gave up four runs on five hits over the first three innings, he settled down and held San Bruno to just two hits over the final eight innings. He finished with four runs on seven hits while striking out nine.

"The first couple of innings I didn't have great stuff," Sobczak said. "I got back in a rhythm in the fourth."

Sobczak hasn't pitched since Serra lost in the first round of the Central Coast Section playoffs three weeks. He said the rest definitely helped.

"The game was close. Just keeping the team in the game was the biggest thing," Sobczak said. "It's the only way to win."

Said Gieseker: "He was outstanding. His last four innings, he was different than he was the first four."

Joe Dieterle pitched well for San Bruno but did not get a decision. He gave up an unearned run in the first and two more in the third but cruised through the fourth and fifth.

He ran into trouble in the sixth when he walked the first two batters of the inning and threw a ball to the third hitter. That was it for Dieterle, who was relieved by Thomas Chu. Chu got a ground out, a strikeout and a flyout to get out of the inning without any damage. He was poised to pick up the save before Wrigley's popup tied the game.

"(Dieterle) was excellent," Graf said. "He hadn't been pitching down the stretch for Capuchino (High). He kept us in the game."

After Justin Granato scored on a throwing error to give Millbrae a 1-0 lead in the first, San Bruno came right back to tie the score in the bottom of the frame on an Orozco double that drove in Dominic Mitchell.

Millbrae took a 3-1 lead in the top of the third with an RBI triple from Dan McCarthy and an RBI double from Shane Arslan. But San Bruno took the lead in the bottom of the inning, scoring three times. Nick Stewart, Ricky Molina and Chris Petrini each drove in a run.

It remained a 4-3 San Bruno advantage until the seventh.

"I think these are two of the powerhouses in the league," Graf said. "[Millbrae is] an excellent team. We'll be all right. With the depth of our pitching staff, we'll be OK."

Correction

In the June 1 edition of the Daily Journal, in the story "Post 82 pounds South City," the player in the picture was misidentified. The player was Eric Robinson.