Desert Oasis’ Brett Brocoff tames wind, Gorman bats

Desert Oasis pitcher Brett Brocoff wasn’t exactly excited to see steady winds blowing out as he was set to take the mound Tuesday.

But the senior right-hander made sure the wind didn’t matter.

Brocoff struck out 13 in a two-hitter as the fifth-ranked Diamondbacks earned a 5-1 home baseball victory over No. 2 Bishop Gorman.

“It was crazy,” Brocoff said of the winds blowing 30 to 40 mph. “We came out here for (batting practice), and we were just shocked at the wind. So it was a good win.”

Brocoff’s curveball was outstanding, and he used it to get swings and misses and also to set up his fastball. Six of his strikeouts came on curveballs, and he struck out six looking.

“Throwing that thing into the wind, it has a little more bite than usual,” Desert Oasis coach Paul Buboltz said. “It’s a really good pitch, usually, but it makes it even tougher to hit throwing into that wind.”

Brocoff also had a big day at the plate, going 3-for-4 and starting both of the team’s scoring rallies. He lined a single to center with one out in the first, and courtesy runner Jordan DeMarce scored on a two-out bloop single by Aaron Roberts.

Brocoff then led off the third by driving the first pitch he saw over the fence in left-center field. That started a four-run inning that gave the Diamondbacks some cushion.

“(I was) just going up aggressive looking for a first-pitch fastball and got it,” Brocoff said.

Chaison Miklich followed Brocoff’s homer with a double, and Gorman starter Dutch Landis then lost his control, hitting the next batter and walking two straight to force in a run.

Gorman’s run came in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Nick Israel. Brocoff’s control betrayed him in the inning, as he walked one and hit two batters to help set up the run.

“With the conditions that we had, I figured it was going to take seven, eight, 10 runs to win,” Buboltz said. “A pop fly is going to get out of here today. He just pitched his butt off today.”

Contact prep sports editor Damon Seiters at dseiters@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4587. Follow @DamonSeiters on Twitter.