Baseball: Neuqua Valley’s David Gerber no-hits Bartlett

Updated: April 18, 2012 9:11PM

Wednesday’s Upstate Eight Valley showdown between Bartlett and host Neuqua Valley was David Gerber’s game.

Though his offense clearly helped him out in a 12-0 win, the Wildcats junior right-hander hurled a five-inning no-hitter as Neuqua Valley took the middle game of a three-game series. Bartlett (7-10, 3-6) won 2-1 Tuesday and the rubber game is slated for today in Bartlett.

The last Wildcat to throw a no-hitter was Ian Krol in 2008. He is now in the Oakland A’s organization.

Gerber (3-0) faced 16 batters and struck out eight. He also only went to one three-ball count the entire game.

Only a second-inning error by the Wildcats (12-5, 8-1) separated Gerber from a perfect game. Giacomo Visconti reached base on the miscue.

Neuqua Valley shortstop Tanner Giesel preserved the no-no with two down in the fifth, making a backhanded play deep in the hole and firing a laser across the diamond to retire Matt Wick for the final out of the game.

“Tanner’s been doing that all year,” Neuqua Valley coach Robin Renner said. “I hope I don’t jinx him, but all year long Tanner’s been really good at shortstop; he’s done a wonderful job there. All of our defenders have done a nice job. Up to this point, I would say our two biggest assets have been our pitching and our defense.”

Gerber was equally impressed.

“Tanner made a great play backhand to help me out and the defense did absolutely great,” he said. “On a windy day like this, you try to keep the ball down. That’s a great-hitting team — they showed us yesterday — and I just tried to keep the ball down and let my defense do the work.”

Giesel also went 2-for-2 with two RBI. Giesel, Jack Amaro, Jeff Evak and Dylan Goss banged out two hits apiece. Goss had three RBI, and Nos. 8 and 9 hitters Brett Marsalli and Matt Wollnik each collected two RBI.

Every Neuqua Valley player in the lineup hit safely.

The Wildcats knocked out Hawks starter Dan Gallanis (1-4) after scoring seven runs on seven hits in the first inning. Left-handed reliever Nick Mazzei yielded five runs—all in his third and final inning of work—in the fourth.

“Just our approach wasn’t there,” Bartlett coach Chris Pemberton said. “It’s a shame. Yesterday, we played a great game — we did a very good job yesterday — and today we were truly a Jekyll and Hyde team. Yesterday we played well; today, we didn’t play well at all.”

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