Following an extra-innings road loss to The King’s Academy (TKA) on Wednesday, May 4, Burlingame had their backs against the wall in the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division championship race. That same day, Carlmont High School, whom they were previously tied for first place with, beat Capuchino High School and passed Burlingame in the standings. Their rematch against TKA on Friday, May 6 suddenly became a must-win if they wanted to keep their title hopes alive. 

Junior and starting pitcher Holden Glavin was given the ball in that rematch. He and head coach Shawn Scott noticed on Wednesday that TKA was aggressive early in counts, and Glavin planned to use it to his advantage.

“We worked backwards with offspeed pitches to throw them off balance and make fastballs more effective,” Glavin said.

The strategy worked, and Glavin turned in arguably his best performance of the season en route to a 3-0 Burlingame victory. He finished with a complete game shutout, striking out 10 and allowing just four hits, all of which were singles. The early offspeed pitches allowed Glavin to work ahead of batters, as he consistently forced bad counts.

“By Holden getting ahead early in counts, it really sets up a variety of different pitches,” catcher and junior Charlie Happ said.

Both offenses were slow to start the game, until Burlingame loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the second inning. Junior Noah Greenblatt hit a soft ground ball to the shortstop, who flipped the ball to second base to set up an inning-ending double play. The second baseman’s throw to first was errant, and it appeared as though Burlingame scored two runs off of the error. But after some confusion, the umpires decided that senior Sean Richardson’s slide into second base affected the throw to first; runner’s interference was called, Greenblatt was ruled out at first and the runs did not count.

Burlingame officially got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the third when, with runners on second and third, senior Ryan Kall brought home a run on a sacrifice fly. Senior Charlie Dohemann then drove in the second runner with a long double to right center. The Panthers led 2-0 at the end of three innings.

The rest of the game was relatively uneventful, with Glavin holding TKA largely in check. Burlingame tacked on one more insurance run in the sixth inning, as Happ scored on a throwing error.

Looking ahead, the Panthers no longer control their own destiny in league play. In order to be named outright Bay Division champions, Carlmont has to lose both of their remaining games — against Sequoia High School on May 9 and 11 — and Burlingame has to win their last two games. They’ll face Menlo-Atherton High School at home on May 11 — their senior night — and on the road on May 13.

“Being one game down is tough and relying on them to lose is annoying, but we are just trying to play our game and hope for the best,” Glavin said.