Green Valley reliever escapes jam, throws four scoreless innings to secure win

When Matt Gilbertson entered Wednesday’s game in the bottom of the fourth inning, his task was to minimize the damage for Green Valley’s baseball team.

The Gators’ relief pitcher went one step further.

Gilbertson escaped unscathed from a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the fourth to keep the game close, and the visiting Gators scored all their runs in the final two innings to pull out a 5-1 victory over Las Vegas.

“You have that situation, you’re just trying not to have a big, blow-up inning,” Green Valley coach Corey Gehlken said. “The ball just bounced perfectly our way to be able to get a crazy double play. You don’t see that double play very often. That’s the difference in the game. That was a huge momentum shift that changed the whole game around.”

Las Vegas (12-8, 6-5 Division I Sunrise League) loaded the bases in the fourth against Gators starter Spencer Cofer and went ahead 1-0 when Hector Perez poked a single through the right side to score Diego Delgado.

But Gilbertson came on and got Ben Bowen to ground into a 5-2 double play before striking out Noah Ponce looking to end the inning.

Gilbertson threw four scoreless innings and retired the first 10 batters he faced before allowing a two-out single to Ponce in the seventh. Antonio Gaxiola went 2-for-3 with a double for the Wildcats.

“He’s been one of our dudes all year,” Gehlken said. “He has pitched phenomenal for us, and every time he goes out there, he pitches with ice water in his veins.”

Gilbertson finished 3-for-4 with three doubles and two RBIs as Green Valley (13-8, 8-3) moved into a four-way tie for second place in the Sunrise League.

The Gators, who were shut out by Las Vegas in the teams’ first meeting, broke the scoreless innings streak in the sixth. Gilbertson doubled home Matt Uran, who pinch ran after James Leonard reached on one of Las Vegas’ five errors. Gavin Morley then put Green Valley ahead 2-1 with a run-scoring single and came home three batters later on a balk.

Gilbertson added a run-scoring double in the seventh.

“I knew we were going to get going when we started hitting hard baseballs the other way,” Gehlken said. “Offensively, we didn’t have our best stuff early. It’s easy to hit when you get going early, but to just keep having that mindset of staying there, staying there, staying there until you’re ready to go, that was a great job on their part.”

Contact reporter David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidSchoenLVRJ