BURLINGAME, CA — After allowing four second-inning runs to Sacred Heart Prep on Wednesday en route to a loss, the Burlingame Panthers turned the tables Friday on their home turf. Burlingame scored twice in each of the first two innings, and it held up the rest of the way in a 5-2 win over the Gators.
Alex Waldsmith made sure the early runs stood up, pitching a complete game in which he allowed seven hits and struck out five.
“I threw a lot of fastballs today, to try to get ahead in the count,” Waldsmith said. “The splitter definitely got me out of some two-strike jams.”
After Waldsmith breezed through the top of the first inning on eight pitches, Burlingame’s offense put up two immediate runs for him, with the help of SHP’s shaky defense. Leadoff hitter Carlo Lopiccolo reached on an error by the second baseman, and advanced to second on another error.
Following a double steal, Kaleb Keelan singled to left to plate the first run. Cooper Gindraux then stole home on a delayed steal play to put the Panthers ahead 2-0. Burlingame stole six bases in the inning and eight overall.
The Panthers doubled their lead the following inning. Mitch DeMartini led off with an infield single, and advanced to third on a booming double by Lopiccolo. Gindraux’s groundout to shortstop scored DeMartini and advanced Lopiccolo to third. After Keelan walked, Lopiccolo broke for the plate on a pickoff throw to first and beat the relay home to make it a 4-0 game.
All of those runs came of Gators starter Angelo Tonas, who recovered to pitch 5 1/3 innings in all and allowed just one run after the second.
“It’s big when you have your ace for the season on the mound,” Burlingame coach Shawn Scott said of the early runs.
Sacred Heart Prep did get back into the game with two runs in the third. Jack Molumphy and Andrew Daschbach hit back-to-back doubles to get the Gators on the board, and Daschbach eventually scored on a John McGrory sacrifice fly.
But Waldsmith did not let the Gators score again after that point. SHP’s biggest threat came in the fifth. Waldsmith hit Nick O’Donnell to open the inning, and then Molumphy singled to right to put runners on first and second.
Daschbach, who will play at Stanford next year, crushed a long fly to deep left field that would have been a home run in most places. But Keelan raced back and caught the ball a few feet in front of the fence, and the runners scampered back to their bases. McGrory singled with two outs in the inning, but Waldsmith got Sean Clark to pop out to keep the Panthers’ lead intact.
“We had a good day of work yesterday defensively, a good day of BP yesterday,” Scott said. “Good, solid day all the way around. (It was a) good, relaxed practice, and it showed today.”
Burlingame scored the game’s final run in the bottom of the fifth, when Keelan led off with a walk, stole second, and scored on a one-out single by Waldsmith, who finished off the Gators in the sixth and seventh without much trouble.
The Panthers improved to 11-9 overall and 5-7 in PAL Bay action with one week remaining in the league season. Sacred Heart Prep is now 10-14 overall and 7-6 in league.
There is still a lot to be determined in terms of the final league standings. Burlingame hosts Terra Nova in its next PAL game on Wednesday, while Sacred Heart Prep will welcome in Hillsdale.
