San Mateo rallies for win over Woodside

"We've been working hard to get to .500 (in league). That's our goal," said San Mateo manager Tony Chavez. "We can get to 6-6 (in league play). That's a realistic goal."

Woodside, on the other hand, came into the season with high expectations after earning a co-championship in the Ocean Division title last season and qualifying for the Central Coast Section tournament. This year, at 7-14 overall and 4-6 in Ocean Division play, the Wildcats are just playing out the string as they have been decimated by injuries.

"They're one of the teams that scared me," Chavez said.

Woodside showed why early on as the first four Wildcats batters reached base and four scored in the bottom of the first against San Mateo pitcher Andrew Cheung. Alex Johnson and Duncan Burr had back-to-back singles to lead off the inning and Garrett Anderson slugged a two-run double. Rob McAdams followed and laced a run-scoring triple to right-center field to score Anderson. As McAdams slid into third, the throw got away from the San Mateo third baseman and McAdams trotted home.

"We jumped on them early," said Woodside manager Emery Olsen. "Quite a few times this year, we've jumped on teams early. But then we've gone flat and we can't recover."

After McAdams' drive, Chavez came out to have a short chat with Cheung. It seemed to pay off as Cheung retired the next three batters to get out of the inning. Cheung gave up one more run in the second on two more hits but then held the Wildcats to just one run and three hits over the next four innings.

"He said to calm down and keep my down," Cheung said of his meeting with Chavez. "I just made sure to keep my balls down and then started throwing my deuce. I just slowed down my motion and started hitting my spots."

Meanwhile, the San Mateo offense showed signs of life, scoring one in the second when Ryan Hammer doubled and scored on a Danny Orlick single.

"I told my catcher to keep working because [San Mateo] is going to close this thing up," Olsen said.

Olsen turned out to be prophetic. The Bearcats (4-6, 12-11) completed the comeback and took a 6-5 lead with a five-run fourth. With one out, Orlick dumped a single into right field. Jake Lerman followed with another single and C.J. Easter - who was 2 for 3 and reached base four times - bunted his way on to load the bases and bring up Kyle Thompson.

Thompson had struggled most of the season but on a 1-1 pitch, he chopped a ball deep into the hole at shortstop to drive home a run and keep the bases loaded.

"[Thompson] deserves it," Chavez said. "He is one of the guys we were depending on this year. He works hard and it's paying off."

Chris Chinn - who finished the day 4 for 4 with a walk while driving in four runs - followed and had the biggest hit of the day, driving the ball deep down the left-field line for a three-run triple. Chinn came in to score on a Cheung ground out.

San Mateo tacked on another run in the sixth when Thompson doubled, went to third on a Chinn single and scored on a wild pitch to give San Mateo a 7-5 lead.

That run turned out to be crucial as Woodside rallied for a run in the bottom of the inning when, with the bases loaded, Anderson drew a two-out walk to plate Andrew Thompson and get the Wildcats to within 7-6.

That ended the day for Cheung and Chavez brought in Orlick. After throwing a first-pitch strike, McAdams sent a bouncing ball up the middle. At worst it looked like Woodside would tie the score and at best the Wildcats would keep the inning alive and grind out the win.

But just as the ball appeared to be heading toward center field, San Mateo second baseman Easter made a diving stop on the ball, avoiding a collision with Chinn at shortstop in the process. Knowing he had no chance at first, he lunged to the second-base bag and touched it for the force out a split-second before Anderson got there.

"I knew I wouldn't have a play at first," Easter said. "I had the ball in my hand and I touched the bag with a finger. I thought I got him."

Said Chavez: "I wanted him to make that play. I saw him dive, he looked and saw Chinn wasn't [at second] and dove himself."

San Mateo added two more runs in the seventh when Thompson and Chinn drew back-to-back bases-loaded walks. Woodside made some noise in the bottom of the seventh when Leo Ortiz reached on an error. But he was quickly erased when Jake Boegner hit a one-hopper to Orlick on the mound who then started a 1-6-3 double play. A strikeout ended it to give Orlick the save.

"This season has been tough for us but we never give up," Cheung said. "We put up a fight, that's for sure."