SUNSET REGION: Gaels advance to Sunset final

Postseason success has become routine for Bishop Gorman’s baseball team, which has won the past four Class 4A state titles.

But the Gaels will have a chance Saturday to play for something they missed out on last year — a Sunset Region championship.

Kenny Meimerstorf belted a solo home run and Joey Gallo hit a two-run double in the fifth inning, sparking Gorman to a 6-2 victory over Sierra Vista in the winners’ bracket final of the Sunset tournament Thursday at Centennial.

“It makes it nice because now somebody has to come and beat us twice for the championship, so it makes it easier on us,” Meimerstorf said. “We can save our arms for Saturday.”

Gorman (32-3) advanced to the region final, where it will play Bonanza (18-13), Legacy (23-9) or Sierra Vista (27-7).

Bonanza will play Legacy in an elimination game at 1 p.m. today at Sierra Vista. The winner of that game will face Sierra Vista at 4 p.m. with a trip to the region final at stake.

Gorman reached the state tournament through a play-in game last year. This season, only the champion of the double-elimination regional will advance to the state tournament, which begins Thursday in Reno.

“You’re in the driver’s seat,” Gorman coach Chris Sheff said of his team. “You’re in the spot that everybody wants to be in going into Saturday.

“We’ve put ourselves in the position where somebody has to beat us twice. If we play like we’re playing, we’ll have a good chance to win it.”

Gorman narrowly won the two regular-season meetings against Southwest League rival Sierra Vista, 6-5 and 4-3.

On Thursday, the Gaels made sure it wouldn’t be quite as suspenseful a finish by scoring two runs in the fourth inning and three more in the fifth to take a 6-2 lead.

Meimerstorf, a freshman, hit a towering homer to left field to lead off the fifth and ignite a three-run inning.

“You still have to keep the intensity up, but it took a little pressure off us,” Meimerstorf said of the fifth.

Gorman’s Chris Tulak threw 6 1/3 innings to earn the win. The senior right-hander gave up two runs on seven hits, five walks and one hit batter with five strikeouts.

“He didn’t have his best stuff like he’s had all year, but he made some quality pitches and dug down deep,” Sheff said. “It was a senior-like effort, and I’m proud of him. He got us where we needed to be.”

Gallo and Johnny Field both went 2-for-3 for Gorman. Field tripled and scored two runs.

Scotty Tomassetti had a pair of doubles for Sierra Vista.

Bonanza 8, Spring Valley 7 — At Sierra Vista, Kris Bryant went 4-for-4, including his 22nd home run of the season, and picked up the save as the Bengals eliminated the Grizzlies.

Bryant thwarted a bases-loaded threat in the seventh inning by getting Jacob Schwartz to pop out and striking out Jose Rosales-Rodarte.

“He’s been a phenomenal player, and whatever his baseball future holds, I’m just glad to say we had him for four years,” Bonanza coach Derek Stafford said. “His home run essentially won the game for us. And on the hill, I told him to just come in and throw strikes.

We hadn’t used him in a month, but we told him that in a tight spot he was our guy. We went to him today and he was huge in getting it done.”

Jordan Brennan belted a three-run homer over the right-field wall in the third inning to give Bonanza a 5-0 lead.

Spring Valley starting pitcher Cameron Cole, who was 3-for-4 with two runs scored, helped his cause with a solo homer in the fourth inning.

Bonanza answered with two runs in the fifth inning behind Eddie Orozco’s RBI double and Ted Merich’s RBI single that made it 7-1.

The Grizzlies scored five runs in the sixth inning to cut the lead to 7-6 on an RBI single by Johnny Hernandez, a two-run double by Robby Brewster, a balk that scored Hernandez and a sacrifice fly by Josh Schuster.

But Bryant tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth inning with a monstrous solo shot over the center-field wall to push the lead to 8-6.

“(Spring Valley pitcher R.J. Randal) hung a changeup and I saw it real well,” Bryant said. “I’ve been telling myself all season to see the ball, hit the ball. I just took a good hack at it and it went out.”

Aaron Blair belted a solo home run down the left-field line to lead off the seventh inning to trim the lead to 8-7 before the Grizzlies loaded the bases and Bryant took the mound.

Orozco finished 3-for-4 and Merich was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a run scored for Bonanza.

Cole went 3-for-4 with two runs and an RBI and Blair was 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI for Spring Valley.

Legacy 6, Arbor View 5 — At Sierra Vista, Andres Ortiz doubled with one out in the bottom of the seventh to score Pierce Skinner with the winning run for the Longhorns.

Ortiz had scored on a passed ball in the fifth inning to tie the game at 5-5.

Skinner doubled twice for Legacy.