Doerpinghaus smacks three homers as Knights eliminate Silverado in American Legion state tournament

Brad Doerpinghaus hit three home runs Wednesday night to lead the Las Vegas Knights II to a 22-9 victory over Silverado in an elimination game of the American Legion State Tournament at Durango High School.

"Silverado has had our number pretty much all season long; before tonight they had beaten us four straight times," Knights coach Mike Oliver said. "That team battles."

Silverado appeared on its way to make it five in a row over the Knights (16-23), who fell behind 6-0 after three innings. But the second entry out of Bishop Gorman pounded out 20 hits and outscored Silverado 22-3 over the last six frames to stay alive in the double-elimination tournament. Silverado (20-12) was eliminated.

The Knights took control of the momentum with a nine-run fourth inning, and Doerpinghaus stole the show with his hat trick of long balls, the first coming in the fourth inning.

"I've never seen anything like that," Oliver said. "Talk about being locked in, he was absolutely locked in. I'm glad to see him getting recognition. That's a big strong kid who works hard for us, and we've seen it all week."

Doerpinghaus, who had three home runs during the regular season, has hit four in the tournament. The 6-foot-1, 200-pound senior-to-be finished 3-for-7 with seven RBIs and three runs.

"It's always a good plan to have people on when Brad is coming up," Oliver said. "That's always the game plan."

Five other Knights had three hits to lead the 23-hit attack, including Christian Turner, who scored four times and had two RBIs.

Payton Ballard went 3-for-5 with a run scored and an RBI to lead the Skyhawks. Four Silverado hitters had two hits.

The Knights' offense bailed out starter Nate Swanis, who struggled out of the gate. Swanis allowed the first five batters he faced to get on base, as Silverado jumped out to a 4-0 lead. After Nik Davis came in to calm things down, reliever Tyler Curtis (5-3) took over and neutralized Silverado's lineup and earned the win. Curtis scattered eight hits in six innings. He struck out five and gave up three runs, just one earned.

"We always knew we were going to Curtis, and if he could give us six or seven innings, we'd be on our game plan," Oliver said.

The Knights' reward for the win is a date with Gorman's other squad, the Las Vegas Knights I, at 8 p.m. Thursday.

"We obviously know those guys and we have a ton of respect for them," Oliver said. "We know we'll have to play near-perfect baseball and we'll give them all we've got."

Southern Nevada Blue Sox 15, Durango 15 — Ryne Nelson went 3-for-6 with two runs and two RBIs and tossed four innings of three-hit ball to lead the Blue Sox over the Traiblazers.

Jack Wold went 2-for-3 with four RBIs and two runs for the Blue Sox, who hail from Basic High, and teammate Logan Green was 3-for-5 with two RBIs and a run scored. The Blue Sox will face the Las Vegas Aces at 5 p.m. Thursday. Richard Mascarenas, who was 2-for-4 with two RBIs to lead Durango, which was eliminated.