DIVISION I BASEBALL: Gorman hurdles past Patriots to earn state tournament bid

Bishop Gorman baseball coach Nick Day started having flashbacks in the sixth inning on Saturday, and they weren’t pleasant ones.

The Gaels led 7-1, but had allowed four consecutive singles to start the inning, and Day thought back to a pair of losses against Bonanza where Gorman allowed a late rally to lose a lead.

“Absolutely we started getting a little nervous in there,” Day said.

But freshman Jack Little got a key strikeout on a 3-2 pitch to Ethan Ibarra, and Liberty managed just one more run as Gorman won 7-2 at Las Vegas High to earn a berth in the Division I state tournament.

“Little is well beyond his years on the mound,” Day said. “He’s got great composure and he made some big pitches to get us out of that inning.”

With the bases loaded and no outs, Ibarra fouled off seven two-strike pitches, but Little froze him with a fastball that Ibarra thought was outside for a called strike three.

“That was a huge pitch,” Day said. “He’d been on that outside corner all day. That was a great at-bat. Jack kept throwing strikes, didn’t lose him and kept going after him and eventually got him to lay off one that he go a called strike three on.”

Little went six innings, allowing six hits and striking out six with no walks in a do-or-die game for the Gaels (31-7-1).

“It’s not often that a coaching staff feels so good when their freshman is on the mound,” Day said. “But we always feel great and feel really confident when he’s out there. We know we’re at least going to have a chance to win the game.”

Cadyn Grenier and Michael Blasko each had two hits and two runs, and Cole Krzmarzick drove in three runs for Gorman, which got a two-run homer from Kenny Meimerstorf.

Dan Skelly was 2-for-3 with an RBI for Liberty, which finished 26-7.

The Gaels play Sunrise Region champion Coronado (32-3) at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at the College of Southern Nevada as they try to continue their streak of seven consecutive state titles.

“We feel like Bonanza is playing great and everyone knows what Coronado has, but we feel we’re as good as anybody,” Day said. “Just to get a chance to go next week, we feel like we have as good a chance as anybody.”