Centennial’s baseball team had done a good job of keeping Northern champion Spanish Springs from having a big inning at the plate during the opening day of the Class 5A state tournament.
Then the sixth inning happened at Thursday’s meeting between the two teams.
Entering the inning trailing by two runs, Spanish Springs exploded for five runs in the sixth. The late rally was too much for Centennial to overcome, and the Bulldogs, the South’s No. 2 seed, fell to the North’s No. 1 Cougars 7-4 at Las Vegas High.
Centennial (27-12) drops to the losers bracket and will play Bishop Manogue, the North’s No. 2 seed, in an elimination game at 10 a.m. Friday at Las Vegas.
“(It’s the) first time for really any of these kids to be on this stage and we kind of got out of our game plan a little bit,” Centennial coach Chris Martinez said. “We just got to focus, again, one game at a time. We got a 10 a.m. game (Friday) and concentrate on that.”
In Thursday’s other opening-round game, Bishop Gorman, the South’s No. 1 seed, rolled to a 10-2 victory over Manogue (28-9). The Gaels (30-6) will play Spanish Springs (22-13) at 12:30 p.m. Friday at Las Vegas in a winners bracket state semifinal.
“You have to win Game 1 (of the state tournament) and we did a good job of it,” Gorman coach Matt Stoner said. “We did a good job of pitching, playing defense and we hit. When we do that, we’re pretty good.”
The winner of the Gorman-Spanish Springs game will advance to the state title game at 10 a.m. Saturday. The loser will play the winner of Centennial-Manogue in another elimination game later Friday to determine the second spot for the state title game.
5-run inning hurts Centennial
Centennial starting pitcher Jake Turner had stranded two runners on base in the third inning, after Spanish Springs had scored a pair of runs, and left the bases loaded in the fourth.
But with Centennial holding a 4-2 lead, Spanish Springs finally capitalized in the sixth.
Centennial have up three straight singles and walked in a run to cut its lead to one run. Then Nery Gonzalez doubled to left field to score three runs to clear the bases, and Wyatt Wirshing doubled to score Gonzalez and put the Cougars ahead 7-4.
“Hats off to Spanish Springs, they kept grinding out at-bats and found ways to get on,” Martinez said. “They had some good at-bats and scored a few runs. For the most part, we minimized (them) a lot, except for that one big inning, which was what were really trying to avoid.”
Centennial jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first inning. The Bulldogs loaded the bases and Chase Hurley scored on a wild pitch. TJ Otis singled to score a run, and another run scored on an error on the throw to try and get Otis at first base.
The Bulldogs will turn to pitcher Dominic Tiberi for Friday morning’s elimination game. The senior right-hander won both of his starts on the mound in the Southern Region tournament, with just one run allowed in 13 2/3-innings pitched.
“The kids got a game under their belt,” Martinez said. “We just got to focus on the next one, get back to our approach, throw strikes on the mound, get ahead on counts and be ready to rock and roll.”
Ciulla leads Gorman to win
About the only thing that went wrong for Gorman in its 10-2 win over Manogue was a first inning error where the Gaels lost a pop fly in the sun. That put two runners in scoring position for Manogue and the Miners took a brief 1-0 lead on an RBI on a groundout.
Other than that, Gonzaga commit Hudson Ciulla was tough to hit on the mound and the Gaels got contributions from their entire lineup to get the win. Ciulla, a senior right-hander, threw six strong innings on 67 pitchers, and allowed one run on one hit with six strikeouts.
“I wanted to have quick innings and get my team back in the dugout to hit,” Ciulla said. “I just want to come out and put zeros up on the board, limit it as much as I can. Giving up a run in the first inning’s not ideal, but if I can get things going quick, it sets us up for the rest of the game.”
Ciulla got plenty of run support as Gorman found its grove in the second inning. Minnesota commit Chase Wilk hit a solo home run to tie the game, and Washington State commit DaMari Hall scored on an error to give the Gaels a 2-1 lead.
Gorman never looked back, as it added runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. Six Gaels had RBIs, led by Hall’s three RBIs in a 3-for-4 effort. Hall had a two-run double in the sixth.
“It gives me a lot of confidence out there knowing our lineup can go do damage and put runs on the board and it helps the defense out,” said Ciulla, who didn’t allow a hit his final five innings on the mound.
Wilk added two RBIs, and Oregon commit Connor Long was 2-for-3 with two runs scored. All nine Gaels reached base and eight scored runs.
“It’s huge,” Stoner said of getting contributions from the whole lineup. “We need everybody to step up from our one through nine guys. When we get (six) guys getting RBIs, that’s big.”
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
