Welch’s pitching, early surge lift Gorman to baseball win

One pitcher came out in control from the start, while the other took an inning to find his groove.

And that might have been the difference Friday at Spring Valley.

Bishop Gorman scored three runs in the top of the first inning off Spring Valley ace Aaron Blair, and the Gaels went on to claim a 9-3 baseball win in a game stopped after six innings because of darkness.

Gorman’s Cory Welch was on top of his game throughout, finishing with a four-hitter to get the win.

“He threw well,” Gorman coach Chris Sheff said. “He was throwing strikes and ahead in the count and allowed us to keep trying to add on and keep the lead.”

Blair struggled with his control in the first, walking two batters and throwing three wild pitches. Gorman used that, along with two doubles and two passed balls, to take a 3-0 lead.

Blair was better after that, allowing one more hit before being pulled with one out in the fifth after walking two batters. He finished with nine strikeouts, many coming when Gorman batters chased breaking balls in the dirt.

“He threw well enough to keep them in the game, but our approach offensively was not what we want, chasing a lot of pitches and not having quality (at-bats),” Sheff said. “We tip the cap to him because he threw well for four-plus and kept them in the game, but I think we kind of helped out with the way we approached our at-bats.”

Welch had allowed just an infield single before he tired in the sixth, allowing his only two earned runs. He struck out six and walked two.

Joey Gallo doubled twice and drove in two runs to lead the offense for the Gaels, who finished with seven hits.

While most teams are playing tuneup games this early in the season, Gorman is 2-0 in Southwest League play.

“To start our schedule with a couple Ws in league obviously puts us in a good spot,” Sheff said. “We start with four league games, but the way the schedule worked out, we had no choice or we wouldn’t have played for two weeks.

“We’re just lucky that teams actually wanted to play (league games) the first week of the season.”