SM-FC earns playoff berth

Which is exactly what SM-FC did. SM-FC pounded out 11 runs on 13 hits in posting an 11-2 win over Millbrae at Mills High.

"We've been hitting good the last two, three weeks," said SM-FC manager Doug List. "Everybody knows if you want to play here you have to swing it."

First baseman Jesse Lehane went 4 for 5 with a run scored, right fielder Ryan Peterson was 3 for 5, center fielder Taylor Larson reached base four times, scored three runs and drove in a fourth and Tim Galvin drove home two with a double and a groundout.

But the big bats belonged to leadoff hitter Drew Pedersen and emergency left fielder Andrew Cheung. Each hit a two-run homer as SM-FC scored a combined nine runs on eight hits while sending 17 batters to the plate in the second and third innings.

While Pedersen's jack was not that surprising - it was his fourth home run in four games - Cheung's came as a complete shock.

"I was expecting a ground ball, base hit the other way and then, bang," List said of Cheung's homer to right.

What made Cheung's blast even more surprising was the fact that he wasn't even in the starting lineup. He was forced into action when starting left fielder Zack DiMaggio got banged up on a collision at first base in the second inning.

Wally Pipp anyone?

"I was pretty surprised (hitting a home run)," Cheung said. "I thought it was a popup at first. But it was an up and in pitch. That's my favorite."

The run support was more than enough for SM-FC pitcher Brian Biniek, who worked four innings, scattered seven hits and gave up one run - a Justin Granato solo home run in the third. Victor Schramm came on to pitch the final three innings, giving up five hits and an unearned run.

Both Biniek and Millbrae starter Brian Walsh got off to shaky starts, as each had to work out of bases-loaded jams in the first inning.

But SM-FC broke through in the second with four runs. Cheung scored on a Dan Murcia single. Murcia eventually scored when Larson's fly ball to left was dropped. Pedersen made Millbrae pay for the error by blasting a 1-1 pitch over the left-field fence for a 4-0 SM-FC lead.

SM-FC broke the game open in the third, batting around and scoring five more runs for a 9-0 lead. Kevin Scannell led off and was hit with the first pitch of the inning. On the second pitch of the inning, Cheung lifted a high, soaring drive that carried over the right-field fence to give SM-FC a 6-0 lead. After the first out of the inning, Larson reached on another error and Galvin drove him home with a double. Galvin scored when Lehane singled.

SM-FC tacked on single runs in the fifth and sixth innings, with Galvin and Larson coming up with RBIs.

Besides Granato's blast in the third, the only other run Millbrae managed was an unearned run in the seventh with Ross Garcia scoring on an error.

The bats started warming up for SM-FC when it participated in the East Bay Reds Summer Classic tournament the Fourth of July weekend. After shocking the host team by rallying from a 6-0 deficit, SM-FC went on to win the tournament championship.

"Those tournaments, you either come together or you bag it," List said.

Said Cheung: "That tournament brought out our confidence. Tournaments like that are for fun but winning it helped us a lot."

Millbrae, which has led the division since the beginning of the season, could suddenly see a division championship slip from its grasp.

A San Carlos sweep of Millbrae on Sunday at Burton Park would prevent a Millbrae championship.

Millbrae manager Eric Gieseker is putting his job on the line that it won't happen.

"If we get swept, I quit," Gieseker said.