T.J. White’s arm, bat lift Gaels to baseball tourney title

High school coaches often talk about the importance of senior leadership. And the leadership burden becomes even heavier on a team with just two senior starters.

If Saturday is any indication, Bishop Gorman's T.J. White looks as if he's ready to shoulder the load.

White fired a two-hit shutout and hit three doubles to lead the Gaels to a 7-0 win over visiting Jordan (Utah) in the championship game of the Bishop Gorman Easter Classic baseball tournament.

"He's definitely one of our senior leaders offensively and defensively," Gorman coach Nick Day said. "He does a lot of different things for us. When he's not pitching, he's playing shortstop. So we depend on him for a lot of different things."

White was nearly unhittable, striking out 11 and walking two. He allowed a third-inning single to Tyler Swan and a seventh-inning double to Carson Tilby.

"He's good," Day said. "He was throwing real hard right from the start and had command of the strike zone. And like he always does, he went right after them."

White struck out four of the first six batters he faced and finished strong, too, striking out two in the seventh.

"I'm feeling real good on the mound lately," White said. "The last couple games I've thrown real well. The arm's feeling good."

White's bat was plenty hot, too.

He got the offense going with a two-run double in the first inning. White added a leadoff double in the third and an RBI double in the fourth.

Joey Gallo was 2-for-3 with a triple, two runs and an RBI, and Johnny Sewald went 2-for-3 with two runs for Gorman (22-4), which won its eighth straight game since losing back-to-back games to Sierra Vista and Galena.

"Of course, everybody wants to win their own tournament," White said. "And it's fun having a winning streak again, and we've been playing well against good teams."

Day said his team, which has won the past five Class 4A state titles and entered the season with some lofty national rankings, finally might be relaxing.

"We played with a lot of pressure on us with some of the national rankings that came out," Day said. "I felt like we played tight for a lot of the season, the first half of the season, really. The last couple weeks we seem like we're loosening up a little bit and swinging the bats a little better."

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