Gaels capture play-in win, gain chance to continue state streak

Bishop Gorman baseball coach Nick Day began having flashbacks in the sixth inning against Liberty on Saturday, and they weren’t pleasant.

The Gaels led 7-1, but had allowed four consecutive singles to start the inning, and Day thought back to a pair of losses against Bonanza in which Gorman allowed a late rally to lose a lead.

“Absolutely we started getting a little nervous,” Day said.

But freshman Jack Little got a key strikeout on a 3-2 pitch to Ethan Ibarra, and Liberty managed only one more run as Gorman won 7-2 at Las Vegas High to earn a berth in the Division I state tournament.

The Gaels (31-7-1) play Sunrise Region champion Coronado (32-3) at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at College of Southern Nevada as they try to continue their streak of seven consecutive state titles.

“We feel like Bonanza is playing great and everyone knows what Coronado has, but we feel we’re as good as anybody,” Day said.

Little went six innings, allowing six hits and striking out six with no walks in a do-or-die game for the Gaels.

“Little is well beyond his years on the mound,” Day said. “He’s got great composure and he made some big pitches to get us out of that inning.

“It’s not often that a coaching staff feels so good when their freshman is on the mound. But we know we’re at least going to have a chance to win the game.”

With the bases loaded and no outs in the sixth, Ibarra fouled off seven two-strike pitches, but Little froze him with a fastball that Ibarra thought was outside for a called strike three.

“That was a huge pitch,” Day said. “He’d been on that outside corner all day. Jack kept throwing strikes, didn’t lose him and kept going after him and eventually got him to lay off one that he got a called strike three on.”

Cadyn Grenier and Michael Blasko each had two hits and two runs, and Cole Krzmarzick drove in three runs for Gorman, which got a two-run homer from Kenny Meimerstorf.

Dan Skelly was 2-for-3 with an RBI for Liberty, which finished 26-7.

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