The Gilbert varsity baseball team lost Tuesday's home San Tan sectional game to the Williams Field Black Hawks by a score of 3-1.

The two teams had a slow start to begin the game. It wasn’t until the top of the second inning where gears started to flow for Williams Field. Williams Field junior Joel Vaught had a big hit to left field to put the Black Hawks on the board first with an RBI double.

The Tigers struggled to make big plays in order to strive for that momentum that they had in the first game on Williams Fields' territory. Senior pitcher Ryan Meyer felt their energy was off.

“The dugout felt dead before the game, it didn’t seem like we really wanted to be out here,” Meyer said. “It seems to be like that with home games because we just expect to go out there and win.”

While the dugout stayed fairly quiet, the Gilbert crowd had some excitement when Jacob Holdridge hit a single at the bottom of the third inning.

Williams Field managed to score in the top of the fourth inning with another RBI by Joel Vaught for the 2-0 lead, followed by a home run in the sixth inning for the Black Hawks by Jake Hall.

Williams Field had a total of 10 hits in the game with a .345 batting average.

Meyers didn’t have the game go the way he expected on the mound.

“I would’ve taken back some pitches I threw,” Meyers said. “I didn’t hit my spots too well.”

Gilbert head coach Matt Gutierrez saw some differences in this second game when the final inning was concluded.

“This was a well-defended game, a well-pitched game,” Gutierrez said. “Whereas the first game defensively we let ourselves down, that was the difference there.”

While the Black Hawks were getting hits all game it was a struggle for the Tigers to make contact offensively. It wasn’t until the very last inning when Gilbert senior Ben Frey drove in a run.

Gilbert's offensive side has been a detrimental element in its game throughout this season. The team's batting average stands at .266.

“Our offense wasn’t there, and our mental side of the game wasn’t there either,” senior catcher Justin Gottardi said. “We need to improve on our hitting for sure.”

“We just have to keep plugging away, we’re not going to quit,” Gutierrez said. “We have to move on, we can’t feel sorry for ourselves.”