BURLINGAME, CA — With their playoff chances, which once seemed certain, now in jeopardy, the Burlingame baseball team was in desperate need of a win on Friday against Hillsdale.
The Panthers delivered in a way that only they could, beating the Knights 2-1 despite managing just one hit to snap a four-game skid. Burlingame (9-10-1, 5-6 PAL Bay) was able to scratch across two runs, and a strong start by Gray Goodman and solid relief work by Justin Beressi made sure it stood up.
“It was mostly a fastball today, and every once in while we’d break off a curveball,” Goodman said. “My job was to have them hit the ball to my teammates. Every once in a while I’d strike them out, but the whole point was to get the defense involved.
The Panthers scored the eventual winning run in the bottom of the fifth, when back-to-back walks to Robby Harrigan and Mario Vargas opened the inning. Justin Brunicardi hit a grounder to second, and just beat the relay to first after Vargas was forced out.
With runners at the corners and one out, Jake Scigliano, a courtesy runner for Harrigan, misread a sign and suddenly broke for the plate. Hillsdale pitcher Thomas Karpishin reacted too late, and by the time he threw the ball home, Scigliano was under the tag and Burlingame had regained the lead.
“We had a different play on,” Burlingame coach Shawn Scott said. “He heard something different. Wasn’t even a squeeze.”
Burlingame opened the scoring in the first inning. With two outs, Mitch DeMartini walked. Goodman hit a hot shot to third that got by the third baseman, allowing Goodman to reach. The runners advanced to second and third when the left fielder could not get a grip on the ball. Karpishin then threw a wild pitch to Taylor Clark, allowing DeMartini to score the game’s first run.
The Panthers’ only hit came in the third, in the form of a booming double to left-center by Goodman, but he was stranded at third. Karpishin was the hard-luck loser for the Knights, pitching a six-inning complete game and giving up two runs (one earned) on one hit, with six walks and four strikeouts.
Meanwhile, Hillsdale (9-14, 4-8) had its chances, but could only manage one run. In the visitors’ second, Drew Aspillera was hit by a pitch with one out and was singled to second by Matt Leong with two outs, but Goodman got Jaxon Skidmore to fly out to center to escape.
In the fourth, the Knights got the tying run across. Isaiah Cozzolino led off with a walk, and Aspillera bunted him to second. James Toh also walked, and Leong singled to load the bases. Skidmore grounded to third to plate a run, but with two men in scoring position, Noah Fitzhugh flied out to right to end the inning.
“Good feel for his curveball today,” Scott said. “He was hitting the spots we were asking him to hit. He doesn’t get rattled in tough situations. He kind of relaxes himself somehow and fights through it.”
Hillsdale threatened again in the fifth, but could not go in front. Karpishin led off with a walk, and a wild pitch advanced him to second. He remained there with two outs, but then Cozzolino hit a grounder to second that took a high hop and momentarily got away from second baseman DJ Capps. Capps had no shot at first base, but he gathered the ball and fired to the plate, where courtesy runner Andrew Iskander had never stopped running. Iskander was out by several feet, and the Panthers were out of the inning.
After Burlingame plated the go-ahead run in the bottom of the fifth, Beressi relieved Goodman with two outs in the sixth. Goodman allowed one run on five hits, with four walks, one hit batter and six strikeouts.
Beressi issued back-to-back walks with one out in the seventh, but got William Garratt to ground into a double play to end the game.
“We didn’t even take batting practice yesterday; we worked an hour and a half on defense,” Scott said. “I think it paid off today. We’ve got three games next week, and I hope this builds their confidence.”
Hillsdale plays a non-league game at Menlo-Atherton on Saturday before returning to Bay Division play on Wednesday at Sacred Heart Prep. Burlingame is at Santa Cruz on Saturday in non-league action, then plays a makeup game against Sequoia at home on Monday night.
