Brian Gadsby leads San Gabriel Valley All-Stars in opener

From Stengel Field to Redlands and now up to Modesto and seemingly everywhere in between, Brian Gadsby’s funky delivery and phenomenal stuff has plagued the opposition throughout 2014.

Donning a different uniform, but tallying the same stellar results, Gadsby, a Crescenta Valley High incoming senior, twirled six no-hit innings in propelling the San Gabriel Valley All-Stars to a 7-0 win over Sacramento on Thursday afternoon in Modesto in the opening round of the Babe Ruth Pacific Southwest Regional.

“Brian threw a pretty good game today,” deadpanned San Gabriel Valley Coach Phil Torres, who’s also the head coach at Crescenta Valley. “He had it goin’.

“He threw really well, we played good defense.”

Gadsby, backed by a defense that went without an error, needed just 63 pitches to navigate six no-hit innings, striking out eight and overcoming a pair of walks split over the first two innings, with one nullified by a double play.

Chris Butcher came on in the seventh and closed out the combined no-hitter.

“It helps when you’ve got a great defense behind you. I’ve got an all-star defense,” said Gadsby, who’s thrown 11 1/3 scoreless innings in two starts for SGV, beginning with a 5-0 win over Heartwell of Long Beach in the Southern California Regional on Saturday. “Coach Torres called a great game. Whatever he called, I threw and it worked.”

It was an excellent start to the eight-team, double-elimination tournament, which sees SGV advance to the second round of the winner’s bracket to face defending champion San Benito on Friday at 5 p.m.

“We drove six hours to play and win,” Gadsby said. “We just want to keep moving on.”

When SGV first arrived at Modesto Christian High, Gadsby said most of the hitters were excited at the small dimensions of the ballfield. But SGV, which was paced by two hits from Joe Torres (Crescenta Valley High), found out the park was hardly hitter-friendly.

“The wind is blowing in and the ball doesn’t carry at all,” Gadsby said.

Hence, San Gabriel Valley tallied three bunt singles and stole home twice, with Raul Camas (Glendale Community College) and Kevin Amezquita the culprits.

“You’re gonna have to play small ball here,” Phil Torres said.

SGV, which features an all-Crescenta Valley High coaching staff and other locals in Adrian Damla (Crescenta Valley High), Wes Walker (Crescenta Valley), Brett Klein (Crescenta Valley) and Cal Christiansen (Glendale Community College), didn’t have to rely on much else besides pitching Thursday.

“Brian cut them up pretty good,” Phil Torres said. “We really just made routine plays, which is all you need to do with this pitching staff.”

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Follow Grant Gordon on Twitter: @TCNGrantGordon.