Mesquite baseball outlasts Gilbert in windy slugfest

April 16, 2013 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


Mesquite freshman Parker Holland endured an up-and-down game Tuesday afternoon, not uncommon to players his age or baseball players in general.

Holland stepped to the plate with two outs, the bases loaded and his team tied with Gilbert in the bottom of the sixth. Pressure situation? You bet. And he got word of encouragement before stepping in from his father, Jeff. It wasn't from a distance like the bleachers. It was up close and personal. Face to face. Jeff Holland is Mesquite's head coach. 

The brief chat paid off as Parker Holland lined an 0-2 pitch to right field for a two-run single that provided Mesquite a 9-7 triumph over Gilbert in  key Division I game at Mesquite High School.

"He hasn't been hitting well and wasn't real confident," Jeff Holland said. "I told him you're meant for this situation. It's going to come up a bunch more times."

Dad was right. Parker Holland's hit made him 1-for-3, with a walk, run scored and two RBI on the day. He also committed an error in the third not costly) and speared a low-liner in the fourth that ended up a double play to ease the damage in what could have been a big inning for Gilbert. 

The game was played in hitter friendly conditions with a strong wind blowing out to right and right-center field most of the way. Gilbert a power hitting team, blasted three homers. -- two by Jack Zoellner and one by Josh Moore. The Tigers have hit more than 40 homers as a team; Mesquite has nine. Both team collected 10 hits. Six of Mesquite's were doubles and the Wildcats didn't homer. 

Mesquite did, however, rally from behind three times -- from 2-0, 3-2 and 6-5. On a tough day for pitchers, Mesquite's Josh Webster stood out at the end. Webster allowed one run and two hits in three innings of relief., including the only 1-2-3  half-inning of the game for Mesquite in the seventh.

"Josh has been a starter, reliever, whatever we've needed," Jeff Holland said. "He's a mentally tough kid. Got out of a jam when he came in and finished strong."

As for the significance of Mesquite's victory, it improved the Wildcats to 17-7 overall and 10-4 in power-ranking games. With four games left in its regular season, Mesquite is among the top 19 teams in D-I. Gilbert (18-7, 11-4 prg) had a seven-game winning streak come to an end. The Tigers remain in good shape for a postseason berth with three games left. They entered play No. 11 in the power rankings. In its last eight games  Gilbert  has averaged 10 runs per game. The Tigers needed a few more Tuesday.

"We left too many guys on base (eight)," Gilbert coach Matt Gutierrez said. "Hit into a double play and had a runner picked off in the sixth. That was a big out because we could have turned our lineup over for the last inning."

Zoellner finished 3-for-3 for Gilbert with three RBI. Moore and Zach Rehmer had two hits each. Jaeben Smith (two doubles and three RBI), Nick Daley (3-for-3, three runs scored), James Harrington (three runs) and Brad Holland (two-run double) paced Mesquite.