After clinching a bid to the Central Coast Section tournament earlier in the week, the Burlingame baseball team closed out the regular season with a 6-4 win at home over the Capuchino Mustangs on Senior Night Friday.
Burlingame overcame a 4-1 deficit with two runs in the fifth and three in the sixth.
Capuchino coach Matt Wilson was disappointed that his team let the lead get away against the playoff-bound Panthers (17-9, 9-5 PAL-Bay).
“You’ve got to play your best when you play a great team like them,” Wilson said. “They’re very well coached and I respect their team.”
Burlingame trailed 4-3 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning. After a pair of hits and a hit batsman, Wilson decided to replace senior starting pitcher Eddie Cecchi with junior reliever Rory McDaid.
McDaid struck out the first batter he faced for the second out, but pinch hitter Jonathan Englemann followed with a sharp grounder to short. Englemann appeared to have beaten the throw to first, but the ball sailed over the first baseman's head, bringing home three runs to make it 6-4, Panthers.
“Errors have kind of hurt as all year a little bit,” Wilson said. “A couple of errors in key situations hurt.”
The Panthers capitalized on Capuchino mistakes in the fifth inning as well to pull within a run. Burlingame scored two runs on just one hit because of three Mustang errors.
Burlingame senior Grant Goodman got the nod to start the game on the mound and was let down by some shaky defense as Capuchino took a 1-0 lead in the first. Cap senior shortstop Jake Steenvoorde smashed a double to center and scored on two passed balls. Goodman did manage to maintain his composure and strike out the side.
The Panthers were denied a chance to get the run right back in the first when senior second baseman Phil Caulfield roped a ball to right field. Caulfield sprinted out of the box, but was gunned down at third base on a spectacular 9-4-5 relay.
Burlingame coach Shawn Scott didn't regret the decision to send Caulfield.
"We're aggressive," Scott said. "We takes chances early in baseball and we scale back late."
Over-aggressiveness continued to hurt the Panthers in the second, as Goodman was thrown out trying to stretch a triple into an inside-the-park home run. Burlingame did tie the game, 1-1 when left fielder Jian Lee hit a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly to deep right field by first baseman Andrew Brunicardi.
Goodman took his warmup pitches before the top of the third inning, but was unable to continue on the mound, suffering an injured elbow in the second inning, according to Scott. Brunicardi took over on the mound after Goodman finished his warmups.
“In the second inning I told Shawn that my arm was kind of hurting, so I came out onto the field [in the third] just to give our guy [Brunicardi] a little bit more time to warm up in the bullpen,” Goodman said.
The Mustangs managed three runs off Brunicardi in the third as sophomore catcher Felix Aberouette hit a one-out single with the bases loaded to drive in a run and make it 2-1. The next batter, senior left fielder Davaughn Foster-Lorenzini smashed a double to center to drive in two and increase the lead to 4-1.
Brunicardi settled down, however, silencing the Capuchino bats over the next three innings to give Burlingame an opportunity to come back.
After the Panthers took the lead in the sixth, senior Vince Arobio came in to close out the game. He capped a perfect seventh inning with a strikeout to complete the come-from-behind victory.
Despite a season of ups and downs, the Panthers clinched a bid to the Central Coast Section tournament by finishing second in the PAL-Bay Division. No. 13 seeded Burlingame will travel to Los Gatos Thursday afternoon (5 pm) to take on the Wildcats. Capuchino finished the season at 10-15, 4-10 in the PAL-Bay Division.
