GHS baseball comes from behind three times to edge Chieftains,
11-10
GILROY – The Gilroy High baseball team battled back from three deficits and finally finished off Palma in the dramatic eighth inning of Wednesday’s thrilling 11-10 come-from-behind victory.
“How many teams down three runs against a 10-1 Palma team think they still have a chance,” head coach Clint Wheeler said. “This team never gives up. They believe in themselves. That’s why we’re never out of it. They are hungry to win.”
After spotting the Chieftains a 5-1 lead at the end of five frames, the Mustangs rallied for five runs in the bottom of the sixth to take a 6-5 edge. The initial surge was highlighted by a two-run double off the wall from junior outfielder Marty Sustaita, who later hustled to score the tying run from second on an error at first base.
But Palma fired back in the top of the seventh inning, scoring a pair of runs on a deep shot to right field to reclaim a 7-6 advantage. Gilroy, however, ended the rally with a 6-4-3 double-play.
Down, but never out, Gilroy, which was ranked No. 10 in the Central Coast Section coming in, came to bat in the bottom of the seventh inning. Junior Mark Gonzalez started things off with a tomahawk shot deep to leftfield for a double. After Carlos Garcia’s ground out advanced Gonzalez to third base, Sustaita came through again with a sacrifice fly to center to drive in the second game-tying run.
The Mustangs threatened for more when senior outfielder Ron Colmon reached on an error. Colmon then advanced to second base when the pitch deflected off the tip of the plate, as sophomore Chris Hernandez stood at the plate. But before Hernandez could take a cut, Colmon was caught stealing third base to end the inning.
“I gave him the steal sign. He did exactly what I asked him,” said Wheeler of Colmon. “He just didn’t get a good jump, and that was a good throw by them.”
Darkness started to become a factor at the end of seven innings, but the umpires let the game continue into an extra eighth frame. Palma once again put Gilroy back on its heals with a two-run homer and a 9-7 advantage. Before the Mustangs got out of the eighth, they trailed 10-7 due to another RBI single.
“I was worried, especially at the end, but I thought if they did not call the game yet, they were at least going to let us finish the inning,” Wheeler said, “or else we’d continue on Saturday.”
The Mustangs wanted to finish on Wednesday, though, and they did.
Following a walk to Hernandez to lead the inning off, outfielder Josh Sterling was hit by a pitch and then second baseman Drew Anderson worked a base-on-balls to load the bases.
The rally looked to be short-lived with senior Ben Hemeon and junior Peter Mickartz striking out, but Gonzalez re-ignited the spark with a two-run base hit to left field to put Gilroy behind by only one.
With two outs and runners on first and second, Garcia ripped a hot shot down to third base, which took a high hop over the infielder’s head to tie the score back up at 10-10.
At the top of the Mustang order came Sustaita, who was given the respect from his last two hits and issued an intentional walk to load the bases up. Then Colmon came up and patiently worked to a full count before taking ball four to force in the game-winning run.
“They believe in themselves,” Wheeler said. “They believe they can win.”
The Mustangs will play Palma again in Salinas on Saturday at noon to finish the home-and-home series. Gilroy’s 4-1 league mark (9-2 overall) puts them tied for second in T-CAL with Palma (11-2 overall) and Live Oak (7-4 overall). Monterey is in first with a 3-0 league mark (7-4 overall).
