Two days after losing to hated Hollister, Gilroy High baseball
bounced back in a big way by ending the regular season with a 4-0
victory at Alisal Thursday afternoon.
Two days after losing to hated Hollister, Gilroy High baseball bounced back in a big way by ending the regular season with a 4-0 victory at Alisal Thursday afternoon.
On top of getting steady production at the plate, the Mustangs witnessed one of the best pitching performances in Gilroy coach Clint Wheeler’s 10 years as Mustangs manager. Sophomore Michael Hartman pitched a complete game shutout, allowing only four Trojans to reach base on two hits, one walk and a hit batter.
“He was unbelievable today,” Wheeler said. “The only time he was in any kind of trouble was in the seventh when he hit a batter and (allowed a) base hit back-to-back.”
Working efficiently, Hartman had only thrown 39 pitches entering the fifth inning. He ended the game with 81 spread over seven frames.
Gilroy’s offense manufactured runs throughout the game, starting with an RBI single by Eric Vegas that scored Taylor Chris in the first. The Mustangs scored again in the second when Roberto Celestino was plated by an RBI single by Hartman, and once again in the fourth when Kevin Grove came home off two wild pitches following a double. Grove, who finished the game 3-for-3, scored once more in the sixth.
After losing 9-6 to San Benito at home on Tuesday, finishing the season with a win before the Central Coast Section playoffs begin next week was exactly the way Wheeler had hoped his club would cap an up-and-down year.
“I think any time you get a win it’s important for confidence,” Wheeler said, “and it’s important to finish league … on a high note.”
The Mustangs improved their record to 10-8 in the Tri-County Athletic League with the victory, and finish the regular season 12-17. The team will now await word on who it will face in a first-round CCS contest. Brackets will be announced Saturday afternoon.
“For sure we’ll play on Wednesday on the road,” Wheeler said. “I just don’t know where.”
Taylor Chris is expected to take the mound for Gilroy in that contest after resting the past week, making Hartman’s performance Thursday all the more valuable as no one else in Gilroy’s rotation was forced to pitch.
