4A STATE: Determined Malm, Gorman advance in thriller over Green Valley

Great players sometimes will their teams to victory. Bishop Gorman’s Jeff Malm did just that in the Class 4A state baseball tournament Thursday.

Malm struck out 15 and allowed two hits in an eight-inning complete game to guide the Gaels to a 2-1 win over Green Valley at the College of Southern Nevada.

Malm also ignited Gorman’s eighth-inning rally with a leadoff single.

“He gets the hit to start the eighth, and then obviously (pitching) him way further than we ever want to extend guys,” Gorman coach Chris Sheff said. “(It was) just a gutsy effort and the type of effort we expect out of him.”

Gorman (38-4) plays Douglas at 3 p.m. Friday. Green Valley takes on Cimarron-Memorial (31-6) in an elimination game at noon, with the winner advancing to a 6 p.m. game against the Gorman-Douglas loser.

With the game tied at 1-all in the top of the eighth, Malm and Field greeted Green Valley reliever Nick Libonati with singles. A walk to Erik Van Meetren loaded the bases for Neil Lawhorn. He hit a grounder to short, but Green Valley’s Brett Harrison made a great stop, spun and gunned down pinch runner Shane Vukasin at the plate.

The Gaels’ R.J. Santigate then hit a fly ball to center that was deep enough to score Field with the go-ahead run.

Malm struck out two in the bottom of the inning to clinch the victory.

“Any win in the state tournament is huge, especially the first game,” Malm said. “That’s usually the toughest one to get. Playing Green Valley last year for state and everything (last year), we knew it was going to be a battle the whole way through, and we were able to pull it out in the end.”

Gorman had opportunities earlier, but couldn’t cash in against Green Valley starter Daniel Levine, who allowed five hits in seven innings. He walked four and struck out two.

The Gaels stranded five runners in scoring position in the first seven innings.

“You’ve got to execute, especially in state,” Malm said. “If you don’t execute, usually the other team does. We were fortunate today that they weren’t able to, either.”

Gorman got a runner to third base with one out in the first, but Malm tried to bunt for a hit and the runner was stranded.

“We kind of got off our game a little bit,” Sheff said. “That’s not something we want him to do (except) sporadically, and that’s not the spot.”

Joey Rickard tried to bunt for a hit with a runner on third and two out in the fifth. Then in the sixth the Gaels loaded the bases with one out, but Lawhorn grounded back to Levine, who started a 1-6-3 double play.

Green Valley (25-11) led early when freshman Evan Van Hoosier drove a Malm pitch over the right-field fence with one out in the second.

The Gaels tied it in the third when Tyler Wagner tripled off the wall in right-center and Rickard punched a soft liner over second base.

Malm said Gorman’s 10-2 loss to Cimarron-Memorial in the Sunset Region final last week altered the team’s attitude.

“The loss definitely brought us back down to earth,” Malm said. “We’re a completely different club than the last three years. We’re playing with a chip on our shoulder.”

Douglas 9, Cimarron-Memorial 5 — The Spartans stranded 13 runners and couldn’t take advantage of five Douglas errors.

“We sucked. Plain and simple,” Cimarron coach Mike Hubel said. “We were terrible today. Terrible in every aspect of the game. Horrible.”

The Spartans took a 3-0 lead in the top of the second, capped by Kris Kaplan’s two-run single. But the Tigers (31-7-1) answered with back-to-back four-run innings.

“I don’t know if it’s because of the guys being in this environment and being nervous ... that’s probably what it is,” Hubel said. “But it’s a bunch of crap. It’s just another ballgame. Now we’re up against the wall. It’s tough.”

Reliever John King was one of Cimarron’s few bright spots, allowing one run on two hits in 3 2/3 innings while striking out seven. The run came on a homer by Tyler May in the fifth.

Cimarron left the bases loaded twice.