Bishop Gorman gets clutch effort from Boesch in win

Spencer Patterson

Friday, April 9, 1999 | 10:07 a.m.

After falling from the ranks of the baseball unbeaten on Wednesday, Durango came into Thursday's game against rival Bishop Gorman intent on spoiling the party for the state's lone remaining undefeated club.

Gaels junior Brandon Boesch had other ideas, however. The right-hander struck out eight batters -- the last one with the bases loaded in the seventh inning -- to help the hosts to a 7-4 win at Hadland Park.

"I think (Durango) was pretty hungry to come out here and play us," Gaels coach Tim Chambers said. "But it's tough to come out to Hadland and win."

Gorman improved to 19-0 on the season. More importantly, at 7-0 in the Sunset Division, the Gaels now hold a one-game edge on idle Cimarron-Memorial and a two-game lead over the Trailblazers (17-2, 5-2).

Gorman took control of the battle of the state's top two ranked teams in the second inning, scoring four runs to open up a 5-1 lead.

After Ruben Moreno's two-out single kept the inning alive for the Gaels, Ben Quinto and Joe Cannella produced back-to-back doubles to finish the job.

A solo homer by Boesch to lead off the third chased Durango starter J.T. Sherman from the game, and gave the Gorman hurler a 6-3 advantage to work with.

That proved to be more than enough, as Boesch kept one of Southern Nevada's toughest lineups off-balance with an array of pitches that only seemed to improve as the game wore on.

His only significant trouble came in the final frame, when the visitors loaded the bases on a pair of walks and a hard liner by Chris Kelly that Quinto couldn't handle at short.

"My adrenaline got going and I might have overthrown a little bit to those two batters (I walked)," Boesch said.

But Boesch quickly atoned, striking out slugger James Burgess and getting John DiBetta to pop up to end the game.

"He seemed to lose his release point (in the seventh), but striking Burgess out was a heck of a job," Chambers said.

"I knew I was better than him, that I had it in me to be better than him," Boesch said.

The Trailblazers, reeling after consecutive losses to Cimarron and Gorman, will try to stop the bleeding today against Bonanza.

The Gaels, meanwhile, will try to complete a week-long sweep of fellow Sunset contenders today at Cimarron. But after beating Cheyenne Monday and Durango Thursday, Chambers knows his charges will have their hands full against Spartan ace Mike Esposito.

"We thought we needed to win two of these three games," Chambers said. "In a situation like that, you have to hope to win two and see what happens in the third against Esposito."