Basic manufactures 6-4 win over Green Valley

Basic baseball coach Scott Baker believes his team’s batting lineup is capable of producing runs in a variety of ways.

The Wolves used small ball Wednesday to hand top-ranked Green Valley its first Sunrise League loss.

No. 3 Basic manufactured four runs in the second inning with only one hit leaving the infield and held on for a 6-4 home victory.

“We’ll do what we have to do to win a game,” Baker said. “You’re going to have to bunt, especially with a team like Green Valley. You’re going to have to execute, you’re going to have to move runners. And, fortunately, today we did.”

Roger Riley was 3-for-3 with two runs and an RBI, and Christian Rivero drove in two runs for Basic (14-2, 9-2 Sunrise).

Garrett Giles beat out a dribbler in front of home plate to open the second, and Riley and Erik Cruz followed with perfectly placed bunts to load the bases.

Paul Myro’s infield single gave the Wolves a 1-0 lead, and Rivero added the first of his two sacrifice flies. John Howard Bobo then reached on an error to plate Cruz before Nick Thompson’s run-scoring single to center put Basic up 4-0.

Basic starter Dominic Opipari didn’t allow a hit until Carter Gehlken’s single leading off the sixth inning. Green Valley (14-2, 10-1) opened the seventh with three straight singles to finally chase the right-hander.

“They have some big hitters who are on top of the plate, and it’s not easy to pitch (inside) with guys on top of the plate like that,” Baker said. “And he did a great job staying composed and hitting a lot of spots in there.”

Matt Uran’s sacrifice fly broke the shutout, and A.J. Amelburu had a run-scoring single for the Gators.

Gavin Amelburu followed with a two-run single to cut Basic’s lead to 6-4, but Christian Sanford struck out cleanup hitter Matt Gilbertson to end the threat.

“We wanted to put the game away and we didn’t, but obviously they did some good things there in the seventh inning that created that,” Baker said. “It got a little sketchy there for a minute, but it’s a big division win.”

Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.