Centennial’s Portaro gets ‘mad,’ belts two homers
If the Centennial baseball team didn’t have enough motivation for Thursday’s matchup against Bishop Gorman beforehand, it certainly got it before the game’s first pitch.
Just after warmups in right field, the Gaels were seen taunting the Bulldogs by ripping apart a familiar blue jersey.
“One of their players used to play for us, and they took one of our jerseys,” Centennial junior Jake Portaro said. “That got me a little mad.”
Portaro took his anger out on the field, going 3-for-4 with two home runs, a double and four RBIs to lead the Bulldogs past the Gaels 6-5. It was their second win against Gorman in the past eight days. With the win, Centennial (23-11) clinched a spot in the Sunset Region championship at 1 p.m. Saturday.
“Everyone says Gorman this, Gorman that, but I’m not afraid of those guys,” Portaro said. “I came out and showed it.”
The Bulldogs fell behind early on a two-run homer by Brandon Wulff in the first, but they rallied back in the third after Portaro connected on a long ball himself.
“(Jack Little) came with a first-pitch curveball, which surprised me,” Portaro said. “But I knew he was going to try to blow it by me with the fastball, so I just sat on it and ripped it. We were fired up for the rest of the game after that.”
Ricky Koplow led off the third inning with a walk and scored on a double-fielding error. Kyle Horton’s grounder went through the legs of Cadyn Grenier at short and Matt Judd in left to score Koplow from first and make it 1-0. Portaro’s home run then gave the Bulldogs a 3-2 lead.
Gorman responded in the fourth when Bronson Bowe hit a two-run double to make it 4-3.
But Portaro wasn’t done just yet. In his third at-bat, he took a first-pitch change-up over the left-field wall to score Horton and make it 5-4.
“He ate his Wheaties this morning,” said 15-year Centennial coach Charlie Cerrone, who got his 350th career win. “Jake had a good day at the plate for us and a good day on the mound.”
Beau Capanna was 2-for-3 with an RBI for the Gaels (26-5), who will play the winner of Desert Oasis and Palo Verde at 4 p.m. today at Centennial. The winner gets a date with Centennial in the region championship.
■ Palo Verde 21, Arbor View 7 — Bradley Lewis went 4-for-5 with a double, a triple, two runs and four RBIs, and the Panthers exploded for 13 runs in the top of the fourth to down the Aggies in five innings.
Yodai Nakamura finished 4-for-5 with a double, two runs and four RBIs, and teammate Colin Janison was 3-for-4 with three runs and three RBIs for Palo Verde, which scored all of its runs in the final two innings. In the fourth inning, the Panthers sent 18 batters to the plate and had 12 hits.
Will Hamilton had a triple and two RBIs, and Sam Powers added two hits and three RBIs for Palo Verde (14-18), which meets Desert Oasis (15-20) at 1 p.m. today at Centennial.
Gabe Gonzalez was 2-for-3 with a run for the Aggies (24-9), who led 3-0 after three innings.
■ Desert Oasis 8, Shadow Ridge 7 — The Diamondbacks scored four runs in the top of the seventh to take a two-run lead and held on to edge the Mustangs.
Chris Van Kuren went 2-for-4 with two doubles, and Alex Tafesh was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer and a walk for Desert Oasis.
Jordan Hand was 2-for-3 with a double and two runs to lead Shadow Ridge (21-13).
SUNRISE REGION
Liberty didn’t have a hit and trailed Green Valley 3-0 before Ethan Ibarra led off the bottom of the third by lining a single to right. The Patriots scored four runs in the inning on the way to a 9-7 win in the winners’ bracket final of the Sunrise Region tournament at Green Valley.
“Ethan Ibarra had one hell of a game today,” Liberty coach Nick Didier said. “He’s been clutch for us for three years now. I’m just damn proud of him.”
Ibarra finished 3-for-3 with a double, an RBI and two runs for the Patriots (27-4), who advance to Saturday’s championship round. Foothill (18-14) plays Basic (25-10) in an elimination game at 1 p.m. today at Green Valley, with the Gators (25-8) playing the winner of that game at 4.
The winner of that game plays Liberty at 1 p.m. Saturday. Should Liberty lose, a second would be played to determine the champion in the double-elimination tournament.
While Ibarra started the rally, senior Jesse Keiser provided the big blow. After Ibarra scored on a sacrifice fly by Josh McCollum, Keiser drove a 1-o pitch over the fence in left-center field for a three-run homer and the 4-3 lead.
Liberty added five runs in the fourth, including RBI singles by Ibarra and Keiser, to take a 9-4 lead.
Green Valley got one run back in the fifth on a homer by Keola Paragas, then made things interesting in the seventh when Jarrett Perns hit a two-run homer with no outs to make it 9-7.
But reliever Trevor Mullaney got a key double-play ball to help stifle the threat.
Keiser finished 2-for-4 with four RBIs. Paragas was 2-for-3 with a triple and three RBIs.
■ Foothill 6, Rancho 5 — Rancho committed three errors in the eighth inning, and the Falcons took advantage to stay alive.
Ryan Moyes singled with one out, stole second and went to third on a throwing error by Rancho catcher Zach Barnhart.
One out later, Austin Wilson hit a chopper to short, but Juan Cruz was unable to field it cleanly, allowing Moyes to score the go-ahead run. Cruz then made a wild throw to first, allowing Wilson to advance to second.
Collin Dobrolecki was 3-for-4 with two RBIs, and Tyler Van Stone and Jack Fredericksen each added two hits for the Falcons.
Dylan Pletsch was 2-for-3 with two runs and two RBIs for Rancho (23-10).
■ Basic 6, Coronado 3 — Ali Deolarte went 2-for-3 with three RBIs to help the Wolves eliminate the Cougars (19-13).
Josh McLean gave up one earned run on six hits in 6 1/3 innings to get the win. Tanner Roundy came on to get the final two outs and a save.
Mikey York was 2-for-3 with a run, and Skyler Mahoney went 2-for-4 with two runs for Basic.
Derek Clelan was 2-for-2 with two doubles and an RBI to lead Coronado, and Sterling Saltz went 2-for-4 with two runs for the Cougars.
I-A SOUTHERN REGION
Chad Jones’ sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth inning allowed Dakota Greenawalt to score the go-ahead run and push Faith Lutheran past visiting Chaparral 2-1 in the Division I-A Southern Region tournament.
The defending state champion Crusaders advanced into Saturday’s championship round. Chaparral will play at 4 p.m. today against the winner of Mojave-Boulder City, which starts at 1, at Faith Lutheran.
With the game tied 1-1 and one on with one out in the bottom of the sixth, Erich Uelmen launched a 1-0 fastball deep and high into the sun. Chaparral left-fielder Jose Ortiz lost track of the ball, which sailed over his head, allowing Greenawalt to move to third and Uelmen to waltz into second with a double. Two batters later, Jones stroked his game-winning sacrifice fly.
“You hate to see that, they played so well,” Faith Lutheran coach Blair Neagle said. “They do all the little things right, they play defense, they pitch, they’re very well coached. So it’s nice to see a good high school baseball game like that.”
Uelmen led the Crusaders’ hitting attack for a second straight day, as he went 2-for 2 with two doubles. He also pitched a complete game, yielding seven hits and striking out eight.
Uelmen, who threw 91 pitches, retired 11 of the final 13 batters.
■ Mojave 9, Pahrump Valley 7 — The Rattlers rallied to score five runs with two outs in the fifth inning, then tacked on two more an inning later to seal the win.
After Mojave’s first two batters flied out to start its half of the fifth, Cory Tobin got the rally started with a single to right. Tyson Goodrich and Chase Anderson both walked to load the bases. A balk scored Tobin, and Otto Hernandez’s base hit to right-center scored Goodrich and Anderson, and the Rattlers added two runs on errors.
■ Boulder City 4, Tech 1 — The Eagles used two two-run innings to hold off the Roadrunners and stay alive.
Eagles starter Peyton Koopman went the distance, scattering three hits and striking out three. The sophomore helped his own cause by going 2-for-2 with a triple, a walk and a run.
DIVISION III SOUTHERN LEAGUE
McClain O’Connor was 2-for-4 with a triple, three runs and an RBI on Thursday to help Lincoln County’s baseball team top Mountain View 12-2 in five innings in the opening round of the Division III Southern League baseball tournament at Needles, Calif.
Michael Miranda and Benny Robinson each drove in four runs as Needles defeated The Meadows 19-13 in the other first-round game.
DIVISION IV SOUTHERN LEAGUE
Troy Heath had three hits and two RBIs, and Indian Springs broke a 6-6 tie with two runs in the top of the seventh en route to an 8-6 win over host Pahranagat Valley in the opening round of the Division IV Southern League baseball tournament.
