Bishop Gorman continues baseball rebound, blanks Sierra Vista

But it was even more important to Gorman coach Chris Sheff that the Gaels capped the week with a win to continue improving from a 1-3 start.

Gorman accomplished both, riding a three-hit shutout pitched by Jeff Malm to an 8-0 win.

“We lost three games in our first week, and then to get back and play five league games very well this week, it’s a big encouragement for our kids,” Sheff said. “It gets us back on the right path.”

The Gaels (7-3, 5-0) entered the season with the hype of three straight Class 4A state titles, five Division I signees and a No. 1 national ranking in Baseball America.

But they had to replace three everyday players, and the new lineup took time to mesh, Malm said.

“A new group of guys, it’s always going to be tough to start off,” he said. “We weren’t really cohesive. But after a few weeks playing together and getting to know everybody, we’re starting to jell and come together as a team.”

Since the 1-3 start, Gorman has outscored six opponents 93-12 — including three straight shutouts in league.

Saturday marked the first shutout loss for Sierra Vista (10-1, 3-1) since falling 7-0 to Santana (Calif.) in April 2007.

Malm, a 6-foot-3-inch left-hander who has signed with Southern California, walked two, hit two batters and struck out seven. He was 2-for-3 at the plate.

“He gives up a walk in the seventh, and you can kind of hear him grunt,” Sheff said. “That’s the type of kid he is; he wants to beat you.”

Malm threw mostly fastballs early but kept the Mountain Lions off balance with a variety of off-speed pitches midway through the game.

“He had pretty good command,” Sierra Vista coach Nate Selby said. “He was around the strike zone.

“He threw a lot of fastballs we didn’t hit. He worked ahead and was able to throw pitches for strikes.”

Joey Rickard was 4-for-4 with an RBI double and scored a run for Gorman, which scored four runs in the first inning. Johnny Field (three RBIs) and Stephen Manthei had two hits each.

Jake Hager went 2-for-4 for Sierra Vista, which committed four errors.

“That’s basically what we’re preaching, is trying to make the routine plays,” Selby said. “But we didn’t do that today.

“We’ll see them in a couple weeks and see if we can find a way to do a little better.”

Malm said the 1-3 start could be what Gorman needed.

“We started off rough and had to go through the hard times we haven’t experienced lately, so in the end, it was probably good for us,” he said.

Sheff said the preseason expectations didn’t contribute to Gorman’s slow start.

“We were limited in practice time,” he said. “We had a tough time getting fields and just got off to a slow start. This week, we played the caliber of baseball we’ve been playing the past few years.”

When the two teams meet April 29 at College of Southern Nevada, it could be a tiebreaker. They split last season and shared the league title at 11-1.

“Whoever won this game pretty much was going to control the division until we meet again,” Malm said. “So it’s definitely a big game, and both teams knew going into it.”