Jun 27, 2008

Torres provides Blues' spark for Blues

Standout pitcher shows he can swing a bat, too

By Julio Lara / Daily News Correspondent

More often than not, if you're looking for Redwood City's Ray Torres on a baseball diamond, you'll find him on the mound.

Thursday night, Torres showed up big for his team in a part of the field he isn't necessarily known for: the batter's box.

The Blues' center fielder was the sparkplug for his team as it came from behind, scoring four unanswered runs to defeat host Burlingame 4-2 in American Legion play at Washington Park.

"I'm feeling good," Torres said. "It had been a couple of games there where I had been unproductive. I just wanted to be aggressive."

Torres went 3-for-4, falling a home run short of the cycle.

The loss was disappointing for Burlingame as it spoiled a terrific outing by AJ Baylock, who has been a model of consistency for the guys in red all year. Baylock went seven strong innings, allowing two runs. He left the game with the score tied.

For a while, it looked like two runs were all Burlingame would need - Baylock was dialed-in. He scattered seven hits and struck out five. Most importantly, there were times when Baylock could have broken, but didn't, helping his team maintain the lead.

Redwood City helped the Burlingame offensive cause in the second inning when a throwing error pulled Curtis Vail off the first-base bag, allowing Matt Feldman to score. Feldman had doubled.

Burlingame added to the lead in the third on a frozen rope by Andrew Suvvanuchuen that scored Danny Lenardon, who had drawn a walk with two outs.

As effective as Baylock was, his counterpart, Matt Blaemire, was just as good.

"Matt came out dealing," Torres said. "I can't explain it."

Redwood City made a dent in the scoreboard right off the bat in the fifth. Torres hit a gapper to left that looked good for three bags. But Torres scored when a relay throw flew into a dugout, giving Torres the extra 90 feet he needed to score.

Torres was at it again to start the seventh, when he doubled to lead things off. He scored two batters later on a sacrifice fly to left.

With the score 2-2 and Baylock seemingly at the end of his rope (two straight pitches that flew into the backstop indicated that), Paul Fregosi was summoned for relief. While he started well, Fregosi gave up a one-out triple to Ryan Morris. Tim Rivera gave his team the lead shortly after, when he singled past a diving Feldman and a drawn-in infield. Torres added an insurance run with his third hit of the night.

Burlingame got the potential winning run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth, but Anthony Bouvier shut the door on the comeback, striking out the side.