Gators’ Krause aces Coronado

Nick Christensen

Wednesday, April 13, 2005 | 9:11 a.m.

The last thing Coronado needed right now was to face the state's best team's ace.

But the Cougars, who have lost their first league games against Basic and Silverado, had a road game Tuesday against Green Valley pitcher Greg Krause.

Krause did nothing to help the Cougars get back on track, allowing four hits and one walk in a complete game shutout of Coronado. With Tuesday's 8-0 win, Green Valley improved to 3-0 in Southeast Division play.

"He's a great pitcher," Cougars coach Mike O'Rourke said. "I tip my hat to him, he did a great job."

Green Valley coach Nick Garritano said getting a shutout in league play is important.

"There's a lot of big games he'll be throwing the next few weeks," he said. "To get a league win, a shutout win is a huge bonus."

Offensively, the Gators had seven hits, and four of their seven runs were unearned. Coronado pitcher Trevor Clausen came into the game in the fourth inning in relief of starter Steve Singer, and held off two Gator attempts at ending the game via the 10-run rule.

"At times we got lackadaisical in the last innings," Garritano said. "We're not clicking on all cylinders. We had an opportunity to put the game away earlier than the seventh inning, the kids need a killer instinct."

Green Valley next plays at Del Sol on Friday, while Coronado will look to get on track when 4-7 Liberty travels to Anthem on Thursday.

Once Around Town

"I triple-checked it. I couldn't believe it either," Desert Pines coach Clint Huggins said of his star's 18-for-25 start to the year. "Even a few of those hits, he gets out in front. Maybe they fool him a little bit, but he always seems to find a hole. They can't get him out."

Rodarte, who has signed with Western Nevada Community College, has walked 14 times so far this season. At this rate, he'd run away with the state record for batting average in a season -- if he gets enough at-bats. Among batters who had a minimum of 50 at-bats, Galena's Joe Hooft leads with a .635 average.

"I know it's high school, but if the opposing coach can take the bat out of his hand, he's going to do it," Huggins said. "His hands are incredible. He has such an eye for the ball at the plate, he doesn't swing at anything outside of the strike zone."

Rodarte and the Jaguars next play Rancho on Thursday evening.

But now, Montano is back and leading the Wolves in batting, with a .481 average.

"He's played ball really well this year so far," Basic coach Mike Kazek said. "He's put up some big numbers. He drove in quite a few runs and consistently gets a couple hits a ballgame."

Three other Wolves -- Kyle Bondurant, Kylee Hash and Kevin Wells -- are all hitting above .430, Kazek said.

"Offensively that has been great," he said. "We've been putting up 10 runs a game, coming up with timely hits, but today we were up 10-1 (against Silverado) and our pitching couldn't hold. The key to the team this year is going to be pitching."

Basic hosts Foothill on Thursday.

Bishop Gorman, with just three seniors, is off to an 18-3 start and is undefeated in league play.

The Gaels don't have a home field at their cozy Maryland Parkway campus, and instead use the city park that's also home to little leaguers. They'll need a big-league effort as they face second-ranked Sierra Vista today at Hadland.

Despite this year's youth movement, Bishop Gorman has already improved upon last year's 17-10 record.

"We've played a couple of clubs from Southern California. Edison and Los Al are very quality clubs," coach Chris Sheff said. "We'll be ready to play. It's a matter of whether we can put up enough runs to beat them."

Today, Gorman likely faces Sierra Vista ace Justin Garcia, a pitcher with whom the Gaels are familiar, Sheff said.

"It's a pretty easy game to prepare for because Garcia beat us three times last year," he said. "It's not real hard to get the kids motivated for it."

"That was a very good win; they're a good team," Bulldogs coach Charlie Cerrone said. "The kids played well. We actually threw six different pitchers at them, and kids that don't normally play contributed as well."

Centennial plays at Mojave today and at Palo Verde on Thursday.