Gaels miss out on early KO, outlast Desert Oasis

Bishop Gorman’s softball team appeared to be on its way to a run-rule victory Tuesday.

The Gaels led host Desert Oasis 10-0 with two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning, needing to record only four more outs on defense to walk away with an easy win.

Nine batters later, Bishop Gorman was one swing away from losing its  lead.

The Diamondbacks scored eight runs with two outs in the fourth, but Gorman held on for dear life and finally pulled out a 13-8 win in a 2-hour, 37-minute marathon in which the teams combined to throw 333 pitches.

“That’s the highs and lows of softball,” said Gorman coach Kevin Smith. “Our girls stuck it out, and we were able to come back.

“You just can’t take anything for granted, that’s for sure.”

Gorman (12-9, 3-0 Southwest League) took advantage of five walks, a hit batter, seven wild pitches and four Desert Oasis errors to carry a 10-0 lead into the bottom of the fourth, and even that looked like it might end innocently after C.J. Wilson was retired on a one-out sacrifice bunt.

But the Diamondbacks (5-10, 1-2) batted for another 25 minutes, stringing together six hits, two walks and a hit batter to pull within 10-8 and put the tying run on base. Gorman reliever Casey Nelson came on to get a lineout to end the threat.

“We were just assuming we were going to be able to get it done, and then we had to bring our freshman in,” Smith said. “That was a huge pick-me-up by her to get us out of the inning.”

And the Gaels caught their breath by scoring twice in the top of the fifth on two walks, a dropped fly ball and Jasmine Gibson’s RBI single.

Gibson went 3-for-5 with four RBIs for Gorman, which had just eight hits and had its top five spots in the batting order go 1-for-16 but score seven runs.

“We were really focusing on letting pitches get deep and being patient because the wind was blowing in,” Smith said.

Shonda Badayos was 2-for-2 with a double and two RBIs, and Sammantha Caruso and Mercedes Rios each went 2-for-5 with two RBIs for Desert Oasis.