Johnson regroups, lifts Skyhawks past Gaels

      Silverado High starting pitcher Jason Johnson stood behind the mound at Durango on Saturday afternoon and watched reliever Derek Stafford hastily make his way to the bullpen in right field.
      Johnson had just given up two solo home runs and a double to three consecutive Bishop Gorman batters in the fourth inning. And the Skyhawks were clinging to a 5-3 lead in a Southern Conference baseball tournament elimination game.
      "I don't like people warming up in the bullpen when I'm pitching a good game," Johnson said. "I was getting tired, but I kept battling, and look what happened."
      Johnson struck out the next batter, then yielded a run-scoring double before retiring 10 of the next 11 batters and leading the Skyhawks to their second upset in less than 24 hours -- a 5-4 victory over the Sunset Division-champion Gaels.
      Silverado coach Brian Whitaker said he had no intention of pulling Johnson as long as he had the lead.
      "I would have had to carry him off the mound," said Whitaker, who pulled Johnson in the fourth inning of Friday's 3-1 victory over Durango. "(Johnson) showed a lot of courage. He got real competitive when he looked over and saw (Stafford) warming up."
      Freshman James Wickman had a two-run double in the Skyhawks' three-run first and a two-run single in the fifth. Gorman (26-5) got four of its six hits, including the homers by Ryan Lee and Nino Mantico, in the fourth inning.
      Silverado (19-9) will meet Chaparral (16-13) Friday at UNLV's Wilson Stadium at 2 p.m. Green Valley and Cimarron-Memorial, the tournament's only undefeated teams, meet Friday at Wilson Stadium at 5 p.m.
      Earlier Saturday, Chaparral defeated Las Vegas 13-2 in a game marred by a collision between two Wildcats.
      Left fielder Eric Leavitt and shortstop Roberto Sanjurjo, both seniors, collided in short left field near the foul line while chasing down a pop fly by the Cowboys' Maurice Washington.
      The game was delayed for more than 45 minutes while paramedics attended to Leavitt, who cut his mouth in the collision.
      "(Leavitt) was dizzy, shaken up and scared," Las Vegas coach Steve Gahn said. "It looked a lot worse than it was."
      Sanjurjo, who walked off the field, began feeling dizzy and nauseated shortly after.
      Both players were taken by ambulance to the hospital. Gahn said both players were released from the hospital by Saturday night.
      The mishap came in the middle of Chaparral's seven-run second inning. The Cowboys led 4-1 with two runners on when Washington hit the fly off Brad Leavitt, Eric's younger brother.
      Sean Vann hit a two-run homer on Leavitt's second pitch after the game resumed to put Chaparral up, 8-1. The Cowboys added five runs in the fifth.
      After the collision, Gahn said he talked to his players.
      "I told them, "We can battle back or we can go in the tank,' " said Gahn, who led the Wildcats to their first postseason victory in nearly 20 years a day earlier. "Losing two seniors was a tough break.
      "It's a tough way to end the season."
      The Cowboys, who were bombarded 18-2 by Green Valley on Friday night, banged out 14 hits and had no errors behind junior right-hander Brett Bollman, who did not allow a walk.
      Vann, who also doubled, went 3-for-4 with two RBIs, and Todd Wadding was 3-for-4 with an RBI double. Catcher Russell Cleveland went 2-for-3 with two RBIs.
      The Cowboys, who won three games in the regular season's final week to qualify for the tournament, are two victories away from the state tournament.
      "We can't wait to feel that turf at UNLV," first-year Chaparral coach Rich Ebarb said.
      The Cowboys will meet a Silverado team, the Sunset Division's fourth seed, that has eliminated the top two seeded teams from its division.
      Johnson and some senior teammates were headed to Silverado's Senior Prom on Saturday night, prompting Whitaker to give a timely analogy.
      "We may not be the prettiest girl at the prom," Whitaker said, "nut we came to dance."