SUNRISE REGION: Clutch homer lifts Gators to Sunrise finals

Green Valley’s baseball team was two outs from the end of its season Thursday.

Then Alec Hutt extended it with one swing of the bat.

Hutt smacked a three-run homer with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning to give the Gators a 6-4 win over Coronado in the Sunrise Region baseball tournament at Las Vegas High.

“He hasn’t been swinging the bat well the last couple days,” Green Valley coach Matt Stoner said. “And he just put a big swing on it in a pressure situation. That’s all you can ask for.”

The Gators (30-6) face Rancho (30-4) at 1 p.m. today at Las Vegas. If Green Valley wins, a second game would be played to determine the Sunrise champion.

The region champion advances to next week’s Class 4A state tournament. The runner-up will face the Sunset Region runner-up at 11 a.m. Saturday, with the winner claiming the final state berth.

The Gators trailed 4-2 going to the bottom of the seventh but had the top of the order coming up.

Evan Van Hoosier led off with an infield single. After a popout, Brett Harrison singled up the middle to put runners on the corners.

Chad Whiteaker then hit a ball back toward the middle. It deflected off the pitcher’s glove right to second baseman Ryan Donahue, but he couldn’t handle it cleanly.

Van Hoosier scored on the play, and runners were at first and second for Hutt, who deposited a 2-1 pitch over the left-field fence to end the game. Hutt had one hit in his previous 10 at-bats.

“The seniors wanted it so bad, and it just feels good to give them that,” said Hutt, a junior first baseman.

Hutt said the Gators had confidence that they could rally with the top of the order coming up in the seventh.

“Evan Van Hoosier, that kid is the best leadoff hitter in the state,” Hutt said. “I knew he was going to get on. And our first five hitters, I’d put them up against the best in the state.”

Van Hoosier was 3-for-3, including a solo home run leading off the bottom of the first.

James Durbin went the distance, allowing two earned runs on seven hits, to get the win. Durbin had thrown an inning to pick up a save in Green Valley’s first game Thursday.

“James, he wasn’t really a starter. He was mainly our closer kind of guy,” Hutt said. “To have him come in was huge. He was pretty much our only arm left.”

Durbin struck out six and walked two.

“We thought we were going to score a little bit more than that and take a little pressure off him, but he pitched great,” Stoner said.

Taylor Giordano had a two-run homer and Chris Blake went 2-for-4 with an RBI for Coronado, which finished 21-12.

Hutt said Green Valley is looking to surprise Rancho and that knowing the season won’t end today eases the pressure.

“We already lost to Rancho. They’re probably thinking they’ve got it in the bag,” Hutt said. “We’re going to come out and hopefully compete. That’s all we can ask to do. And if we fall short, we’ve got a game on Saturday.”

Green Valley 7, Liberty 6 — Van Hoosier went 2-for-3 with three runs and an RBI and Harrison was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs as the Gators held on to eliminate the Patriots (19-10-1).

Liberty scored three runs in the top of the sixth to pull within 7-5, but a stellar defensive play by sophomore shortstop Braden Rogers cut short the rally.

The Patriots had scored two runs and had runners on first and second when Danny Topps laced a line drive toward left field.

Rogers made a diving catch of the liner and fired to second to complete a double play to help preserve the lead.

Liberty scored a run in the seventh on an RBI double by Chris Bradford, but Durbin got Nate Bennett to fly out to right and struck out Anthony Rush to end the game.

Teddy Efthemeou homered for Liberty, which left nine runners on base.