Sierra Vista edges Green Valley

The Green Valley baseball team got away with its first five errors Thursday with relatively little damage.

The sixth error, however, was the killer.

Gators center fielder Dominic McGovern dropped a fly ball off the bat of Sierra Vista's David DeCarlo with one out and the bases loaded in the ninth inning, allowing the Lions to score the winning run in a 6-5 victory in the American Legion state tournament at UNLV's Wilson Stadium.

The win lifted the Lions into Saturday's 7:30 p.m. championship game, in which they will face Bishop Gorman, a 16-3 winner over Las Vegas in Thursday's late game.

Matt Klein pitched the distance for Sierra Vista, allowing five runs on nine hits to get the win.

"That was my first career nine-inning game," said Klein (10-1). "I didn't think I was going to make it after the second inning, but I just kept trying to throw strikes to give the offense a chance to win it."

The Gators (19-15) jumped on Klein for three runs on five hits in the second, with Eric Stewart capping the uprising on a two-run single to make the score 3-0.

Sierra Vista (42-10) cut the deficit to 3-1 with a run in the bottom of the inning, then scored four unearned runs in the fifth to take a 5-3 lead.

"We really struggled at the plate tonight," said Lions coach Levi Gill, whose team finished with seven hits. "But you've got to credit (Green Valley's) pitching for that. We've been swinging well, but their pitchers kept us off-balance."

Green Valley battled back in the sixth, scoring runs on RBI hits by Tyler Blair and Cameron Harper to tie the score at 5.

Neither team threatened again until Sierra Vista loaded the bases on a leadoff double by Chad Claus and walks to Nicholas Kingham and Brooks Klein in the ninth.

DeCarlo lined a Daniel Levine pitch to center. Claus appeared to have a chance to tag up, but he instead took several steps down the third-base line.

"We were screaming for him to tag," Gill said. "But it was just one of those judgment plays."

The ball escaped McGovern's glove, and Claus scored well before the throw home.

The victory gave the Lions a day off today under the tournament's double-elimination format. Gill said the downtime will benefit his players.

"It's nice," the coach said. "It will give everyone a chance to rest, and it will give us a chance to work on a couple of things."

Klein went 2-for-3 with one RBI for Sierra Vista, and teammate Lance Ray went 2-for-4 with a walk.

Blair had two doubles in four at-bats to lead Green Valley.

• Bishop Gorman 16, Las Vegas 3 -- Gorman (64-7-1) used a 10-run fourth inning to blow past the Wildcats (23-16).

Jeff Malm went 4-for-5 with a grand slam in the fourth inning to lead two-time defending champion Gorman to the seven-inning victory.