San Mateo title hopes are dashed

Unfortunately, even with the reprieve, San Mateo could not stop the hot bats of San Ramon Valley as the Dawgs fell 9-8.

"[San Ramon Valley] just hit the ball," said San Mateo manager Ted Cordery. "They have a lot of power. The difference between the teams, if there is a difference, is when they hit the ball in the gap it goes over the fence. When we hit a ball in the gap it goes to the fence."

San Mateo had its ace, Trevor McNeil, on the mound in the deciding game and things started well as he struck out the side in the first inning. Despite the strong start, Cordery was still wary of San Ramon.

"I've seen them play five games prior to tonight and I didn't think for a second we had the upper hand," Cordery said.

San Ramon struck for two runs in the second and three more in the third for a 5-0 lead. It wasn't so much how many runs San Ramon scored, it was how it did it. In the third with a 2-0 lead, Chad Horn followed a Max Louie infield hit with a two-run home run to center field. Jonathan Zimmerman, a behemoth of an 11-year-old, made it back-to-back jacks when he hit a 2-0 pitch to almost the exact same spot as Horn's.

A lesser team might have been demoralized by the sudden turn of events, but San Mateo had been there before. Twice in the District 52 tournament, San Mateo battled back from deficits to claim the championship. The Dawgs looked at Wednesday's 5-0 deficit as just another chance to show their mettle.

"There were two prior events in the district tournament where we were down a couple of runs and came back," Cordery said. "That was a turning point for this team. I think they just drew on that prior experience. When it was 5-0 (Wednesday night), there wasn't a panic. At that point we were talking about chipping away."

Instead of chipping away, San Mateo came all the way back with a six-run third to take a 6-5 lead. The Dawgs sent 10 batters to the plate, had four hits, a walk, an error and a hit batter to change the complexion of the game. After a walk and back-to-back singles loaded the bases, Trevor Scott came to the plate and blooped a single down the left-field line that kicked up chalk and scored Scott Cecil and McNeil to cut San Ramon's lead to 5-2. Tyler Kelly came up with an RBI-double, plating Andre Mercurio and a Kody Barden groundout scored Scott to cut the San Ramon lead to 5-4.

After Anthony Santo was hit by a pitch and stole second, Barrett Cordery reached on an error with Kelly scoring on the play. San Mateo then pulled off a delayed double steal with Santo stealing home with the go-ahead run to complete San Mateo's comeback.

It was shortlived, however, as San Ramon came right back with two more runs in the top of the fourth on a two-run single by Zimmerman. San Ramon added two more in the fifth with its final run turning out to be the game-winner.

Heading into the final two innings, San Mateo found itself trailing 9-6 but the Dawgs didn't quit. They used a two-out rally in the fifth to score a run when pinch hitter Lucas Adams drew a bases-loaded walk to drive in Santo. In their final at bat, the Dawgs got another rally started. With Mercurio at second, Kelly ripped an RBI-double into the left-field corner but the tying run died at second when a foulout to first ended the game.

"This team seems to rise whenever a team put [runs] on them," Cordery said.