San Carlos nearing perfection

"To go undefeated in Joe DiMaggio is so tough to do," Papadakis said.

San Carlos nearly saw its winning streak come to an end Tuesday evening at San Bruno's Lara Field, however. After leading comfortably for most of the game, San Carlos (13-0 in league, 17-1 overall) almost fell victim to a late San Bruno rally.

Down 3-0 in the bottom of the sixth, San Bruno (7-7, 8-7) scored two runs against San Carlos pitcher Brian Belli, who cruised through the first five innings. Jared McGrew led off the inning with a four-pitch walk and Kevin Wild doubled. A San Carlos error scored the first run of the inning and a double play plated the second run and suddenly San Bruno trailed by only a run, 3-2.

San Bruno loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh with one out, but Belli got out of the jam by striking out the final two San Bruno batters.

"I wasn't worried a bit," Papadakis said. "Belli is the best pitcher in the county and in a situation like that, that's who you want on the mound."

Belli has given Papadakis plenty of reasons to feel comfortable. The recent Serra graduate has developed into one of the premier pitchers on the Peninsula. Papadakis went so far as to say, "He's the best I've ever seen for a 17-year-old kid."

Using an array of breaking pitches from different arm angles, as well as a popping fastball, Belli does a good job keeping hitters off balance.

Belli has also matured a lot, Papadakis said.

"Last year, something bad would happen and he'd freak out," Papadakis said. "He'd show that on the mound and the other team would feed off that.

"(Now), Belli is so focused and so competitive. You can't teach that."

San Carlos' depth - both in the pitching department and on the bench - has been a big reason for the team's success this season. With five pitchers that were some of the best pitchers on their high school teams - Pat Coffey, Kevin Dos Remedios and Tom Pierson at Sacred Heart Prep, Belli, and Carlmont's Chris Davidson - San Carlos is confident with whoever is on the mound. Add to that a starting lineup and a bench that can swing the bat with the best of them, San Carlos makes for a formidable team.

That being said, Papadakis has been a bit concerned with his offense lately.

"Our offense has been so good, we've been used to scoring 30 runs in three games," Papadakis said. "But we need to have our killer instinct back a little bit."

San Carlos scored all three of its runs in the second and third inning, and threatened at various time the rest of the game, but it couldn't push across an insurance run.

Credit San Bruno starting pitcher Rick Molina for that. The ace for South San Francisco High this season, Molina worked six innings, giving up three runs and scattering nine hits. He gave up RBI doubles to Coffey and Tyler Kaher in the second and allowed an Coffey RBI in the third, but blanked San Carlos the rest of the way.

"It's tough to pick up the ball here (at Lara Field). You can't pick up the spin," Papadakis said.

It was an unusually quiet offense output for San Carlos, which scored 22 runs in two games in a sweep of Belmont over the weekend. But there is no doubt San Carlos can hit. Four of the first batters in the lineup - Mike Rivera, Kenny Turner, Ryan Scoma and Brad Bauer - are all hitting .380 or better this summer.

But it was the four, five and six hitters that did the damage for San Carlos Tuesday. Wade Reynoso was 2 for 4 with a run scored, Bauer was 1 for 2 with two walks and another run scored and Coffey drove in two of the three San Carlos runs.

"In every lineup, you can see an out or two," Papadakis said. "I don't see that in this lineup.

"It's a beautiful thing."

Daly City 6, Belmont 5

Daly City scored a run in the bottom of the seventh to take the win against Belmont, which scored twice in the top of the inning to tie the game at 5.

Belmont (2-12 in league, 3-16 overall), which has struggled this summer, took a 1-0 in the first but Daly City came back with a four-spot in the bottom of the second. Daly City made it 5-1 in the fourth but Belmont came back with two runs in the fifth and two more in the seventh.

Ryan Moskovitz and Beau Witsoe each drove in a pair of runs for Belmont. Both had a double as did Nick Shabatura, Matt Denys and David Alonzo.