Bishop Gorman’s baseball team planned for Saturday’s meeting with Palo Verde to be a bullpen game.

While the Gaels’ five pitchers kept the lineup of the defending Class 5A state champion quiet, their offense made sure they didn’t have to worry.

Gorman scored in each of the first three innings and pounded out 10 hits, helping the Gaels, No. 4 in the Review-Journal’s 5A rankings, cruise to a 10-2 home win over the No. 2 Panthers.

“Our offense came to play today,” Gorman coach Matt Stoner said. “We haven’t been very offensive all year, and today they did a really good job. We pitched it pretty good today, too. Some guys that haven’t pitched a bunch of innings this year — they threw strikes. But our offense came today, which was awesome.”

Gorman (9-5) got hits from eight batters, and six recorded RBIs. The Gaels’ pitchers limited Palo Verde (13-5) to six hits.

“Our pitching has been awesome all year,” said USC commit and center fielder Nolan Eberwein, who hit a two-run home run in the second inning. “The pitchers kept us in every game, so when the bats are hot, it’s going to be tough to beat us.”

Gorman attacked in the first inning. Jonas Yatson doubled to score Koa Young, and Chase Wilk’s double scored two more runs. Eberwein’s blast to right field gave the Gaels a 5-0 lead after the second inning.

The Gorman lineup “is deep,” Eberwein said. “If one guy doesn’t come through or something goes wrong, it’s nice to have someone to come up right behind him to get the job done and come up clutch.”

That depth was on display in the third inning. No. 8 hitter Austin Arteaga had an RBI single, and No. 9 hitter Justin Rodrigues hit a two-run homer that hit the right-field scoreboard to extend Gorman’s lead to 8-0.

“Yatson was really good today. He had three hits,” Stoner said. “We had a couple of big home runs. We needed that today. We needed some balls in the gaps, and we haven’t done it all year and it was about time we did.”

Yatson finished 3-for-4 with an RBI and scored on a Wilk sacrifice fly in the sixth. Ryan Hunter added an RBI single in the sixth.

Dane Keener drove in both of Palo Verde’s runs. His sacrifice fly in the fourth scored Brady Dallimore, and he doubled home Tanner Johns in the sixth.

Palo Verde’s “lineup is really good, that’s why they’re one of the best teams in town,” Stoner said. “We kept them off-balance a little bit, and we played good. … We go out of town next week to Southern California (for a tournament). It’s more of a camaraderie thing for them to come jell together, and when we come back, we got huge league games.”

Contact Alex Wright at [email protected]. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.