Pitching, small ball help Gilbert baseball stay alive in Class 3A playoffs
Gilbert coach Ashley Burnett won his 500th career game earlier this season and many of those came in the same fashion the Indians were able to use on Saturday afternoon to dodge elimination in the Class 3A Lower State championship bracket.
Junior pitcher Travis Elliott used a solid defense and Gilbert showed a clinic in small ball to earn a 5-3 victory over Aynor. The Indians will travel to Strom Thurmond on Monday in another elimination game. The winner of that will have to go to Bishop England on Wednesday and win twice to advance.
“Survive and advance is the name of the game at this point of the season,” Burnett said. “We sort of forced the issue today. We’re not a great hitting team and when you have that, you do other things. As long as we battle at the plate and hit the ball hard, you can do those type of things.”
The things Gilbert did was run the bases aggressively. The Indians (19-7) finished with six stolen bases that twice included double steals. They scored once on a double steal, added another run on an error and added a third run by stealing third and scoring on a wild pitch.
Elliott drove in a run in the first inning for a 2-0 in the first inning after the Indians executed its first double steal of the game. They added two more in the second when Drayton Keisler scored on an error and Wells Sykes scored on a wild pitch. Ashby Vining added an RBI with a sacrifice fly in the fifth Gilbert finished with just five hits.
Elliott threw 75 pitches on the day and left during the first batter of the seventh inning. He scattered nine hits in six innings and allowed two hits in each of his last four innings of work but only allowed one run during that time.
Ellott struck out three but maybe more importantly didn’t walk a batter.
“He pitched well and battled the whole game,” Burnett said. “Aynor is obviously a very good team and swing the bats well, but he made a priority to get ahead in the count. When you pitch ahead, you have a much better opportunity to be successful.”
Cooper Branham relieved him and allowed one run to score in the seventh. Aynor had the tying run at first base, but Elliott made a diving stop going behind the bag from his shortstop position and flipped it to second for the final out.
That wasn’t the only defensive gem. Sykes threw a runner out at the plate from centerfield to end fifth inning. The Indians also turned a 6-4-3 double play to get out of two men on and one out jam in the fourth inning.
“I was just trying to let them get the ball in play and give my defense a chance to work,” Elliott said. “Knowing it was an elimination game, I just wanted to do everything I could to give our team a chance to win.”
Gilbert and Strom Thurmond are in the same region and split two games this season. The Rebels won 6-4 on March 19 with Gilbert winning the rematch 6-1 on April 4.
“We think we’re good enough to go all the way, so this just adds to our confidence,” Elliott said. “We have to get back at it Monday and hope we can find a way to play on Wednesday as well.”
W: Travis Elliott. L: Landon Beverly. Hitters: A: Spencer Sarvis 3-4, 2B; Andrew Brown 2-3; Keegan Krasula 2-3. G – Dawson Burkett 2-3, 2B.
This story was originally published May 4, 2019 at 4:15 PM.