Jul 5, 2008

White Sox are perfect so far

San Mateo Palomino League team beating legion clubs in tourney

By Julio Lara / Daily News Correspondent

It didn't take too long for the fireworks to get going at Washington Park on Friday morning.

By the time they had finished hitting in their half of the first inning, the San Mateo White Sox had put up five runs on five hits against the Livermore Athletics to start Day 2 of the Burlingame Fourt of July Tournament.

They rode that big inning to a 7-1 victory.

It was the second win in as many days for coach Lenny Souza and his Palomino League team.

While the White Sox did hit a wall offensively in the middle innings of the contest, their starter, former San Mateo Bearcat Nate Davidson, cruised through the game, pitching six spectacular innings of baseball.

"The plan wasn't to have Nate go six innings," Souza said.

He added that when his team went up by five runs, he contemplated taking out the big right-hander and saving him for later in the tournament.

But why mess with a good thing.

The game started with a walk, followed by a strikeout. Then, the White Sox caught the hit-bug when five of the next hitters got base knocks. Before Livermore could recover from the initial shock, San Mateo had posted a five-spot on the scoreboard. The lead was more than enough for Davidson.

"My defense played really well," Davidson said. "The lead gives you the opportunity to be a little looser. You go out there and let them hit the ball. You're just more comfortable. It just relaxes you more."

Livermore scratched and clawed for its lone run in the third, when a one-out walk accompanied by a wild pitch and a passed ball netted the Athletics a tally on the scoreboard.

After that, Davidson was never in any real trouble - he surrendered a one-out double in the fourth, but got out of it, and in the fifth a leadoff single was washed away when Davidson got some help from his defense, which turned a pretty 5-4-3 double play.

San Mateo added to the lead in the sixth. A leadoff walk, a single and another walk started the inning off nicely for the White Sox. Davidson collected an RBI in the frame with a bases-loaded single to right.

Livermore got a runner as far as third base in the sixth, but Davidson got a strikeout to end any threat.

"Usually our offense is on or off," Davidson said, "but today I think the whole offense was on. We were just ripping the ball."

Matt Hammer came in to close the game out for the Sox and enjoyed a 1-2-3 inning.

Despite the win, Souza saw some room for improvement.

"It was one of those, take the win and get out of dodge kind of games," Souza said.