Rancho tested by Gators but repeats as Sunrise baseball champ

Rancho's baseball team might have secretly hoped for an easy day Friday.

What the Rams got instead was a fight to the finish before finally retaining their Sunrise Region title.

Needing to win once to return to the state tournament, the Rams lost 12-10 in the opener against Green Valley before rebounding to outlast the Gators 9-5 in the final game of the double-elimination tournament at Las Vegas High.

"We didn't expect anything but a dogfight today," said Rancho coach Tom Pletsch, whose team advances to the Class 4A state tournament, which begins Thursday at the College of Southern Nevada. "When you lose, you have to clear your head and come back to play, and I think that's where our experience showed."

The Rams (31-5) led 10-9 in the seventh inning of the opener, but Green Valley scored three runs with two outs to force a second game.

The Gators (31-7), who won twice Thursday to stay in the tournament, finally ran out of magic.

Rancho scored single runs in the first, second and fourth innings and appeared to be on its way to an easy win after taking advantage of a Green Valley error and getting a two-run single from Eric Holdren to take a 6-0 lead in the fifth.

An error that allowed a run to score and Chad Whiteaker's run-scoring double trimmed the lead to 6-2 in the bottom of the inning, and the Gators loaded the bases with one out. But Rancho pitcher Brandon Pletsch got a shallow fly-out and a foul-out to end the threat.

"When they left the bases loaded, that was huge," Tom Pletsch said. "Green Valley is a quality program. Until the final out is recorded, they're just not going to let up."

Rancho again threatened to pull away, scoring three times in the sixth and taking a 9-2 lead into the seventh.

With one out, the Gators put five consecutive hitters on base before Rancho reliever P.J. Matha got a sacrifice fly and a strikeout to end the game and touch off a celebration at the mound.

Zak Qualls, who took the loss in the opener, went 3-for-4 with a double, three runs and an RBI for Rancho. He doubled in the first inning and scored the Rams' first run in the final game.

"After the first game, we went down in the left-field corner and said a little prayer. It helped us get through the next game," Qualls said. "It was huge to get the early lead in that second game."

Holdren was 2-for-3 with a run and two RBIs for the Rams.

Pletsch allowed seven hits in 6 1/3 innings, finally tiring in the seventh when he walked two batters and hit another. He threw 116 pitches.

Whiteaker finished 2-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs, and Alec Hutt was 3-for-3 with a double for Green Valley, which will visit Sierra Vista at 11 a.m. today to determine the final state berth. It will be the Gators' fifth game in 46 hours and their eighth in six days.

In the opener, the Rams battled back from a 7-2 deficit to take a 10-9 lead on Michael Cruz's three-run homer in the bottom of the sixth inning. But the Gators got a two-out RBI single from Brett Harrison in the seventh to tie the game and scored the decisive run on a wild pitch.

Contact reporter Bartt Davis at bdavis@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5230.