BURLINGAME, CA — After playing four consecutive one-run games, Burlingame was in desperate need of a blowout victory to rest its pitching staff and key offensive starters. On Senior Night, the Panthers got just that, scoring eight runs in the first inning and cruising from there to an 18-2 win over visiting Woodside.
The win guaranteed Burlingame (11-11-1, 7-6 PAL Bay) of a spot in the CCS playoffs for the third straight year.
After Jack Cauchi retired the Wildcats in order in the top of the first, the Panthers wasted no time in giving him run support. With two outs and a runner at first, Woodside starter Cameron Vaughan walked Alex Gumas, then hit both Tyler Gannon and Robert Harrigan to force in a run. Matt Dahlberg then walked to force in a second run. When Justin Brunicardi hit a grounder to the mound that should have ended the inning, Vaughan threw the ball away and the Wildcats had trouble tracking it down, allowing all three runners to score and Brunicardi to get to third.
It was a 5-0 game at that point, and Burlingame added three more later in the inning thanks to more sloppy Woodside defense. Their only hit in the inning, a single by Mitch DeMartini, drove in the final run of the frame.
“It felt good to score some runs today,” Burlingame coach Shawn Scott said. “Woodside is down a little bit this year, pitching-wise. They’re young, they didn’t pound the zone like they normally do, and we did a good job laying off bad pitches.”
The Wildcats (6-19, 1-11) got two runs back in the second. Evan McDonough, who finished with three hits, led off with a double. He scored with two outs on a single by Alex Roque, and Woodside added another run on a passed ball.
But that was the only positive development for the Wildcats all night, as Burlingame kept on adding runs. The Panthers scored two in the third when Savaun Brown bunted for a hit with one out and made it to second when pitcher Brandon Collins threw the ball away. Brown scored on a double by DeMartini, and DeMartini came around on a single by Gray Goodman to make it 10-2.
In the fourth, Harrigan drew a one-out walk, courtesy runner Carlo Lopiccolo stole second, and an infield hit by Brunicardi scored Lopiccolo.
And in the fifth, some of the Panthers’ alternate pitchers got into the action. Derek Flowers, pinch-hitting for DJ Capps, led off with a single. Alex Vina, another pinch-hitter who is normally a pitcher, doubled him to third. Goodman singled to center to score one run, and the Panthers added another later in the inning on a run-scoring single by Gannon. It was a 13-2 game at that point.
“Come Senior Night, you want to put every senior in the game somehow, and it worked out for us tonight to get some guys some at-bats that hadn’t batted in awhile,” Scott said.
Sloppy pitching by Woodside led to five more runs for Burlingame in the sixth. Only one of the runs was driven in by a hit, an RBI single by DeMartini for his third hit of the game. The other four were all forced in via hit-by-pitch.
Burlingame pitchers, meanwhile, allowed just two hits after the second, as the Wildcats were just 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position. Cauchi pitched the first three innings and allowed two runs on three hits, Paulie Ferrari pitched the fourth and fifth and did not allow a baserunner, and Nick Cerelli and DeMartini pitched a scoreless sixth and seventh, respectively.
“Any win this late in the year can be a momentum builder, and you’ve got to see it as so,” Scott said. “Have good, disciplined at-bats, continue to play good defense, and see what happens if we get into [CCS playoffs].”
The Panthers and Wildcats will conclude the home-and-home series on Friday at Woodside at 4:00. Burlingame can finish anywhere from third to fifth in the Bay Division, while Woodside, a year after winning the Ocean Division title and being moved up to the Bay, will finish in last place.
