Tenacious Bulldogs hold on to win

Instead, Cowell reached base all four times he went to the plate, drove in two runs, scored two runs and hit a solo home run to left field.

"I have a headache but other than that I'm fine," Cowell said.

His effort helped the Bulldogs outlast the Mariners in pool-play action of the 16-and-under version of the East Bay Reds Summer Classic tournament at Fremont's Ohlone College Friday evening.

On a shallow fly to left field, Cowell sprinted into left field from his shortstop position. He was in position to make the catch, but so was Kalush. Neither player called for the ball and once Kalush made the catch, his shoulder caught Cowell flush in the face. Cowell lay on the field for a few moments before getting up and heading back to short.

"For us it's hard to tell if he's having a good day or a bad day," said Bulldogs manager Danny Harris. "He said he was fine and went back out there. He's definitely a gamer."

A few minutes later, in the bottom of the first, Cowell found himself at the plate with a runner on third and one out. He sent a blooper over the head of the Alameda second baseman to drive in Brandon Barron with the first run of the game and set the tone for the rest of the contest.

"It started a couple of games ago. I'm seeing the ball better," Cowell said.

It appeared most of the Bulldogs saw the ball well as they scored at least one run in every inning except the sixth. They needed every one of those runs as the Mariners refused to go away. San Mateo had leads of 2-0, 3-2, 5-3 and 9-3. Yet the Mariners had the tying run at third base in the top of the seventh before relief pitcher Noel Alexandre got a strikeout to end the game.

"That's what it's been like all year," Cowell said. "It's just gotten to the point where it goes to the bottom of the seventh or leave the tying run at third."

After Donny Lavezzo gave San Mateo a 2-0 with a single in the second, Alameda came up with two runs in the third to tie the score. Cowell untied it in the bottom of the frame when he punched a 1-0 pitch just over the fence in left field for a 3-2 San Mateo advantage.

"It was a fastball right down the middle," Cowell said. "There's a distinct feeling when you get all of it. It's only my second home run of my life and it felt exactly the way the first one did."

Alameda tied the game at 3 with a run in the fourth, but the Bulldogs countered with two runs in the bottom of the inning. Chris Caselli drove home Andy Fyfe with a single and Justin Lopez also scored on the play thanks to an Alameda error.

San Mateo pushed its lead to 9-3 in the fifth, sending eight batters to the plate in the process. The Bulldogs opened the inning with the first six batters reaching base. An Evan Jones single scored one run, with another run coming home on another Mariners error. The big blow came off the bat of pinch hitter Kevin Dunn, whose chopper through a drawn-in infield plated two more runs.

The Mariners chipped away, however. They scored four of their own in the top of the sixth to cut their deficit to 9-7 and then added one more in the seventh. Down a run, Alameda saw the game end with the tying run 90 feet away at third base.

"We definitely played flat," Harris said. "We played like we've had seven days off."

The Bulldogs will take on the Bay City Express at 5 p.m. Saturday at Ohlone before ending pool play with a 5 p.m. start at Mt. Eden High in Hayward on Sunday. In that game, they face the Washington Manor Dodgers.

Orioles drubbed in opener

A year ago, the Post 82 Orioles won the 18-and-under championship of the East Bay Reds Summer Classic.

This year, the Orioles are going to need some help to make the finals again after they were soundly beaten 12-1 in their first game of pool play, losing to an ASA Titans team they had beaten earlier in the season.

It wasn't so much that the Orioles lost, it was how they lost. The defeat snapped a 12-game winning streak but the Titans embarrassed the Orioles by having the game end after five innings because of the 10-run mercy rule.

San Mateo prevented the shutout in the fourth when Jesse Barnes tripled and scored on a Bobby Scott single to make the score 8-1. Scott was the only San Mateo player with multiple hits, going 2 for 2. San Mateo managed only six hits for the game.

The Titans put the Orioles out of their misery with a four-run fourth to take a 12-1 advantage. The Orioles will face the San Mateo County White Sox at 2 p.m. Saturday at Mt. Eden High in Hayward and round out pool play with an 11 a.m. Sunday game at Ohlone.