Skip to navigation Skip to content Skip to footer
Jake Denham threw five innings as the T-Birds starting pitcher Wednesday afternoon at Gateway to earn the win for Mesa. (Photo by Aaron Webster)
Jake Denham threw five innings as the T-Birds starting pitcher Wednesday afternoon at Gateway to earn the win for Mesa. (Photo by Aaron Webster)
Jake Denham threw five innings as the T-Birds starting pitcher Wednesday afternoon at Gateway to earn the win for Mesa. (Photo by Aaron Webster)
Posted: Apr 18, 2018

Solid Pitching, Hitting Helps #11 Mesa Take Down Gateway, 8-2

Mesa, AZ - After defeating the Gateway Geckos yesterday at home, the #11 Mesa Thunderbirds completed the two-game series sweep of the Geckos with an 8-2 victory at Gene Autry Park in Mesa Wednesday afternoon.

Coming into today's game with five wins but only starting his second game of the season, Jake Denham had a solid five inning outing, allowing five hits, striking out three while allowing only one earned run.  

The Mesa offense helped Denham early on in the top of the first inning, giving the Southpaw a four run cushion.  Connor Denning began with a single followed by a single by Paul Steffensen that pushed Denning to third base.  Marcus Skundrich then hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Denning from third to give Mesa its first run.

After a Drew Bailey single, Joshua Brown singled in Steffensen from third to make it 2-0.  Riley Peterson then finished the four run inning by knocking in Bailey and Brown by doubling to right field. 

Two more runs were pushed across the plate by Mesa in the top of the second inning as Jace DeGrange was tripled home by Kelby Richardson.  A Connor Denning sacrifice fly then scored Richardson from third.  On the day, Mesa collected 14 total hits.

With the victory, Mesa moves to 37-13 overall and 21-13 in the ACCAC.  The T-Birds will play a two-game set with Paradise Valley this Friday and Saturday, beginning at Paradise Valley at 3 pm on Friday, then at home for a noon start.