Burbank Baseball Falls to Muir 13-3 in Pacific League

Burbank High’s baseball team managed a five-hit, three-run rally in the bottom of the fifth inning Tuesday, but the damage was already done by then. Visiting Muir had built a 12-run cushion before the Bulldogs scratched across any runs, and Burbank fell 13-3 in a Pacific League home game at Bob Hope Field.

The loss drops Burbank to 1-8-1 overall and 1-3-1 in league play.

Muir wasted no time. Eight batters came to the plate in the first inning, and the Mustangs walked off with a 5-0 lead before Burbank recorded three outs. Will Rodriguez did most of the damage with a three-run double down the left-field line, and Jaeger Martinez followed with a two-run single to center.

The Mustangs kept pushing. By the end of the second inning, they led 8-0, powered by a two-run single from Gianluca Cano and a sacrifice fly from Ezekiel Rodriguez. Three more runs crossed in the third, when Eduardo Sosa led off with a single and Muir loaded the bases to take advantage of hit batters and a bases-loaded walk. The lead stretched to 11-0 through three innings.

Burbank head coach Bob Hart has been coaching the Bulldogs for years, and by his own account, this stretch has him stumped.

“We can’t seem to figure it out and I can’t seem to either,” Hart said. “Seventeen total team bases given away. To say it’s frustrating would be an understatement.”

That number, 17 free bases, tells much of the story. Senior starter Sebastian Aguirre lasted just one-plus inning, giving up three hits and hitting four batters. Junior Casey Peters followed and threw two frames, allowing two hits, three walks, and hitting two batters while recording one strikeout. Junior Carter Williamson gave Burbank the most length of any pitcher on the day, going three and two-thirds innings with six strikeouts but also allowing two walks and hitting two batters. Senior Julian Recinos closed out the final two-thirds of a frame.

The afternoon’s lone bright spot came in the bottom of the fifth. With Burbank trailing 12-0, eight Bulldogs came to the plate and six reached base. Sophomore Luka Kuiper started things with an infield single. Sophomore Mason Schwartz followed with a single to left. Junior Anthony Sanchez reached on an infield hit, and then Recinos drove in a run with his own infield single. Senior Tomas Angel laced a single to left that scored another run, and senior Ryland Le Clair capped the inning by drawing a bases-loaded walk to bring the score to 12-3.

It was a productive inning against a Muir team that entered the game at 4-7 overall and 1-7 in league. The Mustangs added one run in the fifth on a single to right and tacked on a final run in the seventh on a sacrifice fly from Ezekiel Rodriguez to set the final margin at 13-3.

For Burbank, the gap between what the team can do offensively, as shown in that fifth inning, and what keeps happening on the mound and in the field is the central problem of their season so far. Giving away bases through hit batters and walks is a correctable issue, but it has to get corrected quickly. The Bulldogs are running short on games to absorb losses of this magnitude.

Burbank’s next league action will offer another chance to work through the issues Hart described. Whether the pitching staff can limit free bases and give the offense a fighting chance will be the thing to watch.