Carlmont’s varsity baseball team conquered the Burlingame Panthers on Friday, March 20 with a 4-3 win.
“It feels great to have beaten Burlingame because they’re an amazing team, and have the best record in PAL [Peninsula Athletic League]. The win was a byproduct of a lot of hard work at practice, senior leadership, and teamwork,” said varsity coach Rich Vallero.
The Scots had a strong start going into the first inning when senior and designated hitter Alex Pennes brought in senior and left fielder Julian Billot with a run batted in (RBI) for the first run of the game. Carlmont took the lead 1-0.
“Our goal is to win as many games as we can, so we started off aggressive. We wanted to play as hard as we could,” said Billot.
Carlmont held their lead into the second inning with a steal to home from Pennes. The game slowed down until the top of the third with an RBI double from Billot, bringing in senior and third baseman Michael McGill. The third inning ended with Scots leading 4-0.
“We lost to them on Wednesday, but we were able to redeem ourselves. We worked as a team,” said junior and catcher Connor Loucks.
The game advanced into an uneventful fourth inning, but gradually picked up at the top of the fifth when Carlmont gave up a run due to an error at first base. The inning concluded with Burlingame hitting a RBI double bringing in another run for the Panthers, but Carlmont was still ahead with a score of 4-2.
The Panthers began to close in on the Scots with another run after an error on first base, bringing the score to 4-3.
“We started off the game really high in spirit, especially when we kept getting in runs. After the fourth [inning] we got a little discouraged, but we worked as a team to pick each other up and we came out on top,” said Billot.
However, despite the Panthers’ close recover, the seventh inning ended with Scots taking the win with a score of 4-3.
“The mindset I want all my players to have is to be relentless, which means all the time, and it’s never going to change. I set the bar extremely high, but that’s why we have three championships. We never stop,” said Vallero.
Varsity baseball’s next game will take place on Monday, March 23 against Rancho Cotate at 4 p.m.
