Nevada Preps Boys Athlete of the Week: Green Valley’s Brady Ballinger

Green Valley’s Brady Ballinger said he lives for pressure moments.

The Gators’ senior first baseman said he’s gotten used to it by not letting himself think of pressure moments differently from any other moment.

“You play this game. You’ve taken 1,000 swings with that bat. What’s the difference between this one and a different one?” Ballinger said.

That mindset has paid off. Ballinger went 3-for-4 with seven RBIs and two home runs in the Gators’ 12-1 win over Las Vegas on April 18. For his efforts, he was named Nevada Preps Boys Athlete of the Week.

“I was just hunting my pitch,” Ballinger said. “I took a little more of a patient approach looking for a pitch I knew I could drive. And it just worked out that day.”

Ballinger totaled six hits and nine RBIs in Green Valley’s three wins last week. On his first home run against Las Vegas, Ballinger said he got ahead in the count and was waiting for his pitch.

“When the pitcher threw the ball, I knew I couldn’t miss it,” Ballinger said.

Ballinger helped Green Valley on the mound, recording the last four outs in its 9-7 win over Coronado on Thursday to snap the Cougars’ 10-game winning streak.

“We knew they were on a hot streak, and we’re the team that could end that — if we played our best we could beat them,” Ballinger said. “It showed how good of a team we are in that game.”

Green Valley is in first place in the Class 5A Desert League with only two league games left. Ballinger said the Gators’ resiliency has helped them on a recent six-game winning streak, but they can’t lose focus on the bigger prize at the end of the season.

“We can’t let what we’ve done already this season get to our heads,” Ballinger said. “We need to keep playing like it’s our last game.”

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on Twitter.