Galena baseball falls to Silverado

RENO - For the 12th time in the last 14 years the Class 4A state baseball championship will remain in southern Nevada.

Silverado's Chase Bradford pitched a complete-game one hitter as the Skyhawks downed the Galena Grizzlies, 6-2, in the losers' bracket final Friday at Peccole Park.

Galena advanced to the final with an 8-1 victory over McQueen while Silverado fell short in a nine-inning loss to Bishop Gorman, which blew an 8-0, fourth-inning lead only to hang on for a 9-8 win.

"I'm real proud of that first game when we came back from (eight) runs down and came out against this ball club (Galena) tonight and stay alive," said 12-year Silverado coach Brian Whitaker. "(Grizzlies pitcher Eric Maupin) was probably the best guy we've see this year."

Maupin, a junior, also pitched a complete game for the Grizzlies, who ended their season with a 28-9 record, striking out five and allowing six hits. But Galena was unable to get to Bradford, who consistently got ahead in the count and for the most part kept the Grizzlies' bats silent.

Trailing 3-0 heading into the top of the fifth inning, Galena third baseman Jake Hess slugged a Bradford offering well over the left center-field wall to drive in catcher Basim Azzam and draw the Grizzlies to within one run with no outs.

But Bradford never again was in danger and pitched his way out of the inning.

Silverado answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning - beginning with Rance Roundy's solo homer to left and ending with Matt Warner's two-run blooper to right to give the Skyhawks all of the offense they would need the rest of the way.

"We hit a couple of balls hard, but they were lineouts," said Galena coach Gary McNamara. "We never had a chance at getting anything going."

Even though his team left without the state championship, McNamara said it didn't go away empty-handed.

"I told the team after the game, 'You are the Northern Nevada champions. You proved that on more than one occasion. You earned that," McNamara said. "Last year we went to regionals, this year we got a taste of state - maybe we can build on that."

One thing that will be built on by next year is Galena's baseball field. The Grizzlies played every game on the road this year.

"Just to play a home game will be nice," McNamara said with a smile. "The one good thing was that we didn't touch a rake or do dirt all year."

Catcher Mike McDade grounded out to short, but drove in Jordan Keegan to kick off Silverado's two-run first inning. Second baseman Kyle Bostick scored next, coming home on Maupin's wild pitch.

Left fielder Ryan Whitesitt hit a sacrifice fly in the second to give the Skyhawks a 3-0 lead and Bradford carried it home from there.

"He did a great job protecting the lead," McNamara said of Bradford, a junior. "He made a mistake with Jake, but he pitched for strikes like good pitchers do. He had a good breaking ball. When he struggled with that, he had good command of his fastball. I was impressed - not so much with his stuff, but with his poise."

Silverado, which had won "14 or 15" consecutive games before losing to the Gaels, according to Whitaker, will have to win two in a row if it is to win its second state title and first since 2000. The two southern teams will meet at 10 a.m. at Peccole Park, with an "if needed" game to follow 30 minutes later.

Bishop Gorman improved to 34-7-1 with its win over the Skyhawks. Silverado improved to 33-4-1 with the victory over the Grizzlies.

In the Grizzlies' first game, Galena put the Lancers on their heels early, scoring five runs in the first inning. The Grizzlies sent 10 batters to the plate and after Azzam brought in J.D. Peters with a single, Jacob Anderson - the Grizzlies' starting pitcher - helped his own cause in a big way, hitting a bases-loaded triple to give his team a 4-0 lead.

Left fielder Matt Evans added another run in the inning with an RBI-single.

Anderson pitched 6 shutout innings and notched four strikeouts while spreading out six hits and three walks.

Peters pitched the seventh inning, surrendering McQueen's only run on the game's final play. Brian Barnett drove in Lancers starter Travis Reynolds with a double to center, but was thrown out while trying to leg out the hit to third.

Reynolds took the loss, giving up seven runs, nine hits and three walks.

Anderson finished the game 3-for-4, with 3 RBI and scored two runs. Maupin continued his torrid hitting, going 2-for-3 and bumped the Grizzlies' lead to 7-0 with a two-run triple in the fourth.

Galena center fielder Justin Norvick added an RBI-single in the fifth to round out the Grizzlies' scoring. Azzam went 2-for-4 as did Tony Thompson, who scored a run in the fourth.

Kyle Stewart relieved Reynolds to start the fifth and gave up one run and four hits for the Lancers, who finished the season at 34-6.