Dornak throws three-hitter as Basic rolls

The high school baseball season is just six days old, but Basic already has a season’s worth of strong pitching performances.

C.J. Dornak threw a three-hitter Tuesday as the Wolves beat visiting Las Vegas 12-0 in five innings for the team’s fifth shutout in eight games. Basic has allowed only four runs, three of them earned, in 49 innings. Only two of the seven pitchers the team has used have allowed an earned run, and the team ERA is 0.43.

“It looks like the guys are really trusting the defense right now,” Basic coach Scott Baker said. “And we’re just going with, get ahead of guys, throw strikes and whatever happens happens.”

Dornak followed that philosophy to a tee Tuesday in throwing his second shutout of the season. The sophomore worked quickly, lived on the outside corner and trusted his defense. The right-hander threw 41 of 52 pitches for strikes. Dornak had only one strikeout.

“That’s what C.J. does,” Baker said. “He commands his fastball for sure, both sides of the plate. And that’s what he did today.”

Las Vegas (4-2, 1-1 Division I Sunrise League) had just one baserunner in the first three innings, and that batter reached on an error. The runner was quickly erased when Dornak induced a 4-6-3 double play, the first of three turned by Basic (8-0, 2-0).

The Wildcats’ first hit came on a one-out double by Hector Perez in the fourth.

Trey Chauncey followed with a chopper back to Dornak that deflected off the tip of his glove to shortstop Ryne Nelson, who couldn’t get Chauncey at first. But Dornak got cleanup hitter Diego Delgado to ground the ball to Nelson, who started an inning-ending double play.

The game ended with some fancy glove work. With a runner at first and one out, Noah Ponce hit a grounder up the middle. Second baseman Christian Rivero made the backhanded stop and flipped the ball from his glove to Nelson, who barehanded the toss and fired to first for the double play.

“I’m sure C.J. was pretty happy about those,” Baker said of the double plays. “The defense has been playing phenomenal. We knew coming in that we were going to need to play defense to do what we’re doing, and the guys are doing it.”

Christian Santillanes, the team’s No. 8 hitter, was 2-for-3 with a double and three RBIs to lead the Basic offense. J.J. Smith went 1-for-2 with a double and two RBIs, and Roger Riley was 2-for-2 with two runs and an RBI for the Wolves.

“We’re in a really good spot so far,” Baker said. “But we want to stay as even keel as we can. We don’t want to get too high. We understand the importance of keeping an even keel. And we just want to keep plugging away, and tomorrow’s another day.”

Contact prep sports editor Damon Seiters at 702-380-4587 or dseiters@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DamonSeiters