Panthers manufacture win | Local - San Mateo Daily Journal

The old baseball adage — get ’em on, get ’em over and get ’em in — is purposely left vague because there are so many ways to accomplish those three goals.

However it’s accomplished, it’s proven to be a winning formula. Add solid pitching and defense to the equation and, more often than not, it results in a win.

Burlingame did precisely that as the Panthers hosted Hillsdale in a Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division game Wednesday. The Panthers were limited to just three hits — while also working four walks — but did just enough on the basepaths and at the plate to pull out a nice, tidy 2-0 win over the Knights.

Three hits proved to be enough because Burlingame starting pitcher Noah Larkin was just as dominant. He held Hillsdale in check, scattering five hits over six innings of work.

“[My outing] was pretty good,” Larkin said. “I have to give it to my fielders behind me.”

Tyler Moniz-Witten earned the save for Burlingame with a three-strikeout seventh inning.

Despite being only a sophomore, Larkin has become a key component in the Panthers’ starting rotation, having become the team’s workhorse with a team-leading 28.1 innings pitched and four wins so far this season.

“He’s been our front-end guy all year long,” said Burlingame manager Shawn Scott. “He’s listened to everything we’ve talked about and he’s worked hard in his bullpen sessions.”

Larkin definitely benefited from a strong defense behind him. The Panthers made all the routine plays look easy, but they also came up with some defensive gems that added to the Knights’ frustrations. Two of the biggest defensive plays came in the second inning. First, Burlingame second baseman Jacob Cilia charged a slow bouncer off the bat of Drew Aspillera and, as his momentum was carrying him toward home plate, threw back across his body to get the runner by a step.

Later in the inning, Hillsdale loaded the bases thanks to back-to-back hits from Antonio Paolinelli and Reese Barrelier and a walk to Jack Yeretich. Dylan Cesar, the Knights’ No. 8 hitter, came to the plate and lifted a 1-2 pitch to medium right field

Burlingame baseball-McMasters — Burlingame catcher Alex McMasters tags out Hillsdale’s Antonio Paolinelli on a play at the plate in the top of the second inning.
Nathan Mollat/Daily Journal

Burlingame rightfielder Thomas McClure made the catch as Paolinelli tagged up at third and attempted to score. McClure fired a rope to catcher Alex McMaster who was waiting for Paolinelli, swiping a tag on him going by to complete the 9-2 double play.

In the top of the fifth, Burlingame’s Cilia stole another hit away from Hillsdale, when he fielded Cesar’s bunt-for-a-hit attempt and got him by half a step at first base.

As good as Larkin was, Hillsdale’s Scott Leighton might have been even better, as he threw his fourth complete game of the season. He did what is asked of any pitcher — to give his team a shot to win. Two runs on three hits in six innings? Can’t ask any more of Leighton.

“He’s incredible,” said Hillsdale manager James Madison. “Games go like that sometimes.”

Burlingame (6-1 PAL Bay, 8-2 overall) got all the scoring it would need in the bottom of the second inning. Taylor Clark and Emilio Flores opened the inning with back-to-back walks. They both moved up a base on a McMaster sacrifice bunt before Clark scored on a Gino Lopiccolo suicide squeeze bunt.

The Panthers added an insurance run in the third in similar fashion. Keunho Kim, the Panthers’ No. 9 hitter, hit a slow roller to second base. He not only beat the throw to first, it got past the Knights’ first baseman and Kim hustled into second. He moved to third on Preston Lau sacrifice bunt and scored on a Cilia sacrifice fly to center.

Get ’em on, get ’em over, get ’em in.

“You have to do that in this league. You have to do that in baseball,” Scott said. “Baseball’s gotten away from those things.”

The loss puts Hillsdale (2-4, 6-6) in danger of dropping out of the division championship race altogether. Not only do the Knights get Burlingame at home Friday, they have to come back Monday to finish up a game with Carlmont that was suspended in the ninth inning April 1 because of darkness.

If there is a silver lining for Hillsdale, it’s that the Knights have stayed true to form since Bay Division play started.

“We haven’t won a league game on the road and we haven’t lost a league game at home,” Madison said.

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