DESERT CLASSIC: Florida team halts Rancho’s win streak in baseball tournament final
Sure Rancho baseball coach Tom Pletsch would have loved to take home the tournament title at the Bishop Gorman Desert Classic on Saturday.
But he knows that lessons learned at this time of the year might be more important than games won.
So Pletsch and his players will try to learn from their mistakes after a 17-6 loss to South Dade (Fla.) in the tournament final at Bishop Gorman on Saturday.
“Conference starts up on Wednesday, and there were some glaring mistakes that we’re making,” said Pletsch, who saw his team’s 10-game win streak come to an end. “We’ve played eight games over the last nine days, and it allows us to look at our mistakes and get back to practice and iron those things out as we get back to conference.”
A couple of early miscues and some bad luck might have doomed Rancho on Saturday.
The Rams plated a run in the top of the first, but an error by shortstop Brandon Pletsch with one out in the bottom of the inning started a South Dade rally.
After a hit and a walk, Richard Gonzalez hit a slow grounder to Kevin Kline at third, but the ball took a kangaroo hop over Kline into left field for a double, and a throwing error on the next play allowed South Dade to take a 4-1 lead.
“Our shortstop, who’s normally pretty solid, boots the ball, and we should have had two outs and nobody on,” Tom Pletsch said. “And then two batters latter they hit a dribbler that took a weird hop, and it just unfolded from there.”
The Buccaneers scored nine runs in the second to take a 13-1 lead before Rancho showed life with a five-run third inning.
Brandon Pletsch hit a two-run homer, and Zak Qualls had an RBI double in the inning. But Kevin Littlejohn came on to strike out the final two batters of the inning to end the rally. He retired all eight batters he faced to pick up the win.
“Our No. 1 objective is to win the Northeast League, anyway,” Tom Pletsch said. “I’m proud of these kids. They’re 13-3 and won the Little Caesar’s tournament and were second in the Gorman tournament.
“If you would have told me that March 1, I would have said I would take it.”
Bishop Gorman 15, Arbor View 14 — At Gorman, Joey Gallo singled home two runs with one out in the bottom of the seventh as the Gaels rallied to beat the Aggies in the third-place game.
Arbor View had scored nine runs in the top of the seventh to take a 14-12 lead. But Gorman loaded the bases, and Cory Welch walked to force home a run, setting up Gallo’s game-winning line drive.
Johnny Field, who scored the winning run, was 2-for-4 with a home run. Kenny Meimerstorf added three hits, including two doubles, for Gorman. Wesley Dezler also homered for the Gaels.
Nick Urban was 4-for-5 and hit for the cycle for the Aggies. His home run was one of two in the seventh inning for Arbor View.
Colton Hinrickson had a double and a home run in the seventh for the Aggies.
Durango 4, Cathedral City (Calif.) 1 — At Durango, Riley Smith went 2-for-3 with a triple and two RBIs to lead the Trailblazers to the victory.
Rick Gonzalez pitched six solid innings to earn the win. He allowed one run on three hits with two strikeouts.
Mike Sukeyasu tripled for Durango.
Bishop Gorman JV 8, Shadow Ridge 1 — At Eldorado, David Kuzma scattered six hits as Gorman’s junior varsity beat the Mustangs.
Mike Wager was 3-for-3 with a double for Shadow Ridge.