From the sports archives: San Carlos is still on top

Despite having an almost completely new lineup for 2007, San Carlos just keeps rolling. San Carlos improved to 8-0 in South Peninsula Division League action with a 5-4 win over San Bruno at Burton Park in San Carlos.

“We have a new group of kids,” said San Carlos manager Bud Papadakis. “It’s nice to see they caught on (to the San Carlos way) real quick.”

San Bruno, on the other hand, is just trying to keep its head above water as it waits to have its full roster. The roster that manager Bob Nolan put on the field Thursday was not bad — newly minted Bay Division co-player of the year Lucas Hagberg started at shortstop and former Capuchino standout Jesse Orozco started at catcher — but San Bruno was missing Greg Gonzalez — the Coast Conference North Pitcher of the Year after an outstanding freshman season at Skyline — and Ricky Molina, another Skyline standout.

“I still have good hope (for the season),” Nolan said. “There’s no one in the North (Joe DiMaggio North Division) doing anything. We’ve been inconsistent but the talent is here.”

For the first time this season, San Carlos (8-0 in league, 10-1 overall) found itself in a ball game and rose to the occasion. San Bruno (4-4, 4-4) made some noise in its final at-bat, but could not push across the tying run. In the top of the seventh, Hagberg drew a lead-off walk, ending the day for San Carlos starting pitcher Ben Maudlin. Jamie McGowan came on in relief and promptly walked Mike Watkins. Both runners moved up a base on a wild pitch before McGowan got a strikeout for the first out. He struck out the next batter but hit Kevin Danielle to load the bases. McGowan got out of the jam by getting Kevin McAlindon to fly out to right field.

“My team showed what I hoped I’d see,” Papadakis said. “They showed the maturity of being a baseball player. They were using their head.

“Eighty-five percent of the game, at this level, is from the shoulders up.”

There wasn’t a lot of thinking from either side early on. The first few innings were a classic example of see ball, hit ball. San Bruno took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Hagberg walked to lead off the game and moved to second on a wild pitch. He scored on a Watkins single to center.

San Carlos came right back with two runs in the bottom of the inning. San Bruno starting pitcher Marc Raffin got two quick outs before walking Grant Bauer. Will Klein followed with a single and Zack Turner drove in both with a blast to deep center field that went for a two-run double.

San Bruno responded with two runs in the top of the second. Danielle and McAlindon led off the inning with back-to-back singles. A groundout and strikeout brought No. 9 hitter M.J. Stocker to the plate. He jumped on the first pitch he saw, hitting a drive to deep right-center field for a two-run double and a 3-2 San Bruno lead.

“[Stocker’s] been an incredible fill in for Gonzalez (at second base),” Nolan said.

San Carlos would take the lead for good in the bottom of the second. John McGowan led off with a stand-up triple to center. David Dipaola followed with an RBI single. He stole second and moved to third when the throw got by the San Bruno shortstop. Dipaola ended up scoring on Jamie McGowan’s single. Tony Cooper’s RBI double rounded out the scoring for San Carlos.

From that point on, the pitchers and defense took over. San Bruno reliever Justin Prasad came on in the fourth and held San Carlos to just three hits the rest of the way.

San Bruno, after touching Maudlin for three runs on four hits in the first two innings, allowed only two more hits the rest of the way.

San Bruno got within 5-4 with a run in the sixth. McAlindon singled, went around to third on two groundouts and scored on a wild pitch.

“We had our chances,” Nolan said. “We put out a good effort against a good team.”