No. 4 Las Vegas buries No. 3 Gorman with 14-run inning — PHOTOS
Longtime Las Vegas High baseball coach Sam Thomas wasn’t sure how his team would respond after falling behind early in Tuesday’s game against Bishop Gorman.
Thomas’ Wildcats not only responded, they dominated.
Las Vegas, No. 4 in the Review-Journal’s Class 5A rankings, scored 14 runs in the bottom of the third and rolled to a 16-7 home victory over the third-ranked Gaels.
“I’m happy with their approach, and I’m happy with how they came out and they competed,” Thomas said. “They didn’t let getting down 3-0 faze them. We have a tendency sometimes to think the game’s over if we get scored upon like that, but these guys, they did a good job of sticking with an approach and coming out and playing our game.”
Las Vegas (16-5, 4-1 5A Desert League) trailed 3-0 before sending 16 batters to the plate in the third inning to take control of the game.
“In the dugout we kept energy high at all times, and we were picking each other up even though we didn’t start off hot,” said junior left fielder Hunter Iverson, whose three-run homer to left capped the scoring in the third. “But we’re good enough to come back at any situation, and we just thrive off each other to work and go win ballgames.”
The Wildcats had seven hits in the third inning and were helped by three errors by Gorman (11-8, 4-3). Las Vegas also drew a bases-loaded walk and had a batter hit by a pitch to force in another run.
“We were selective,” Thomas said. “We didn’t chase a lot of bad pitches. We battled at the plate, we put the ball in play, and we didn’t strike out, so that was huge. That was the difference.”
Iverson went 3-for-4 with two runs and three RBIs to pace a 14-hit attack for Las Vegas, which remained in first place in the 5A Desert League. Bryden Bull was 3-for-5 with a double, two runs and an RBI, and No. 9 hitter Rian Jaime was 2-for-3 with a run and two RBIs for the Wildcats.
Alec Kajioka was 4-for-5 with a run and three RBIs, and Nolan Eberwein went 3-for-4 with a double, a home run, two runs and an RBI for the Gaels.
Eberwein led off the game with a homer to right-center field.
The Gaels won’t have to wait long to get another shot at Las Vegas. Gorman hosts the Wildcats at 6 p.m. Thursday.
Thomas said he likes playing the same team twice in a week, because it forces a team to dig deeper into its pitching staff rather than simply rely on its ace against other top teams.
“I love that kind of schedule, because now, we don’t see their No. 1 on the second rotation again,” Thomas said. “You’re going to see a pitching staff in a two-game series. I would have loved a three-game series, but we don’t get that many games.”
