Gorman repeats as Legion champion
Bishop Gorman’s American Legion baseball team spent the entire summer verifying its reputation as the most feared club in the state.
The Titans tarnished that image a bit with inconsistent play in the first three rounds of the state tournament, but they proved Saturday they were still Nevada’s team to beat.
Starting pitcher Stephen Manthei made only one appearance in the tourney, but he made it count by tossing eight strong innings to lead Gorman to a 12-3 victory over Reno in Saturday’s championship game at Wilson Stadium.
With the victory, the defending national champion Titans earned a trip to the Western Regional tournament, which will begin Aug. 6 in Fairfield, Calif.
“We were set up for Stephen,” said Gorman coach Chris Sheff, whose pitching staff struggled throughout the week. “This was obviously a good spot for him to come in.”
The Knights (39-16) flexed some muscle early, getting a towering solo homer in the first inning by Patrick Gallagher.
“(Manthei) got into some trouble in those first couple of innings,” Sheff said. “But he settled down to give us a solid performance.”
Gorman (57-12) answered in the bottom of the inning, tying the score at 1 when Johnny Field drove a line single off the arm of Reno pitcher Thomas Jameson to score Joey Rickard from third base.
The resulting injury to Jameson stopped the game for five minutes, but the Knights ace recovered to hold the Titans scoreless over the next three innings.
Reno went ahead 2-1 on a bases-loaded passed ball by Gorman catcher Erik Van Meetren in the second inning, then extended the margin to 3-1 in the fourth on an infield RBI single by Nicholas Bietz.
But the Titans opened the fifth with singles by Taylor White and Wes Denzler, and Rickard tied it on a two-run triple to the right-center. A wild pitch by Jameson scored Rickard to put Gorman ahead 4-3.
Manthei, meanwhile, retired nine of the next 10 batters to silence the Knights over the next three innings.
“When I struck out all three guys in the fifth, I felt like we were going to come back and win this thing,” Manthei said.
Gorman began pulling away in the seventh when Denzler led off with a triple and Rickard homered to left field to make it 6-3. Any doubt was erased when Johnny Field hit a grand slam in the eighth to give the Titans a 12-3 lead.
Sheff said his team established the momentum it would need to be successful in the regional tournament.
“I don’t think we played our best baseball this week,” said the coach, whose team won its fourth consecutive championship. “But we’ve obviously got a confident group of guys. A lot of these guys have been to the World Series, and they know what it’s going to take to get back there.”