Gilbert baseball coach Matt Gutierrez figured he had good pitching to work with this season What he wasn't sure of was defense and hitting.

The season's been highly successful thus far and those latter two areas shone bright Wednesday afternoon in  the Tigers 11-4 victory over Mountain Pointe in a Division I game at Gilbert High.

Gillbert's offense struck for five runs in the first two innings and after Mountain Pointe gradually crept back late, the Tigers sent 10 batters to the plate and scored six times in the last of the sixth to put the game away. In between starter and winning pitcher Chase Merriman wasn't necessarily at his best, but a number of defensive plays aided him in keeping Mountain Pointe to two runs the first five innings.

"We have four or five (pitchers) we believe in," Gutierrez said. "They're not going to go out and dominate good offenses. They have to pitch. When we play defense and hit like we did today, I like what we can do."

Gilbert (15-7 overall, 9-2 power-ranking games) staked Merriman to a 5-0 lead after two innings. A two out, two-run homer by cleanup hitter Austin Murphy in the first got things started. I It was Murphy's seventh homer of the season. A two-run double - the first of two hits and four RBI on the day for leadoff hitter Matt Keppler -- added on in the second.

Mountain Pointe relievers Tim Teraberry and Griffin Soggie (for an inning) kept Gilbert at five runs through five while the Pride pecked away to cut the deficit to 5-3 in the sixth. Mountain Pointe managed 10 hits off Merriman in his 5 2/3 innings of work, but the Pride stranded 11 runners. When Merriman needed defense he got it. Twice early in the game shortstop Zak Thomas converted outs on tough grounders in the hole (first and fourth innings). Third baseman Nick Manger made a leaping stab of a sure extre-base hit liner to lead off the fifth. Merriman stabbed a hot liner at him with two on to end the fifth and made a kick-save on another hot smash to get an out in the sixth before leaving in favor of reliever Cole Williams who finished up.

Mountain Pointe's rally from a 5-0 deficit to 5-3 was led by catcher Josh Wunnenberg. Wunnenberg homered in the third and singled in a run in the sixth. But Mountain Pointe lost its momentum in the last of the sixth as a walk, high-hop single and mental error covering first on a bunt loaded the bases for Gilbert. Jack Ruegge's third hit of the game made it 6-3 and Keppler's second 2-RBI double made it 8-3. A fielder's choice and two more hits plated three more runs to sew up the outcome.

Every Gilbert starter had a hit except Merriman with Thomas and Ruegge collecting three hits each and Keppler and Zak Meyer two apiece. Kole Sanchez chipped in two RBI for Gilbert.

Mountain Pointe (10-10, 6-4 prg), which started five underclassmen, had four players with two hits each -- Wunnenberg, Omar Garcia, Brock Bell and Jasper Gonzales. Gonzales homered in the seventh for the Pride's final run.