Jul 3, 2008

San Bruno escapes with win

By Julio Lara / Daily News Correspondent

It seemed like the San Bruno Pony All-Stars did everything they could to lose Wednesday night's tournament game against South San Francisco.

They committed four errors in the first three innings, which led to two runs. They ran themselves out of a potential big inning by failing to steal home not once, but twice. And they gave up a two-run lead in the top of the seventh that tied the score and gave all the momentum to South City.

But despite all of that, San Bruno found a way to win, defeating South City 5-4 in thrilling fashion in the Peninsula Pony League 13-year-old All-Stars Tournament in Redwood City.

Tim Gretter proved to be the man of the evening for San Bruno. Not only did he pitch 5 2/3 innings of gutsy baseball, but it was his two-out single in the bottom of the seventh that brought home the winning run for San Bruno.

"I like to be in that situation," Gretter said. "It gives you the opportunity to be the hero. I like that. If you do, it's great; if you fail, at least you tried your best."

If Gretter's performance on Wednesday proved anything, it's that the youngster has ice water flowing through his veins. A pitch before his single, Gretter fouled it off his foot. He followed by getting one just past the dive of the South City first baseman, who was not guarding the line even though the game was in its latter stages.

Gretter only surrendered a pair of hits, but South City jumped on the board first thanks to some spotty defense by San Bruno.

An error to lead off the game helped Steven Pastora reach first. (He'd later score on a fielder's choice to give South City the lead.)

Ismael Orozco took the ball for South City and promptly retired the first two batters he faced via the strikeout. But Paul Murray made sure Orozco didn't get too comfortable, homering to dead center field on the first pitch he saw to tie things up at one.

South City took advantage of another two errors to score their second run in the third. Gretter, though, seemed unfazed despite all the madness going on around him.

"You just have to think positive," Gretter said. "You have to forget about it (and) pretend it never happened."

The offense finally happened for San Bruno in the fourth. They singled five straight times against Orozco and still hadn't made an out when San Bruno made some questionable decisions on the base paths. Instead of letting the hit-bug continue to infect all of their hitters, they attempted to steal home on two occasions, once on a double steal and once on a suicide squeeze. Both times the San Bruno runners were out at the plate. So instead of a potentially crippling inning, they handed South City two outs. At the end of the fourth, they were up 4-2.

Things stayed that way until South City busted out the rally caps in the seventh. South City collected three hits in the inning, the biggest a two-out, two-run single by Dalvin Martin.

But despite the comeback, a leadoff walk was the window San Bruno needed to regain the lead and win the game in the seventh. South City almost got out of a one-out, runners-on-second-and-third jam when Gino Franco struck out Murray for the second out.

But Gretter sent San Bruno fans home happy with his game-winning single.