LAFAYETTE >> Though Silver Creek ace Nolan Gaccetta’s stuff on the mound was masterful on a rainy Thursday afternoon at Centaurus High School, some defensive mistakes behind him turned a pitching gem into more of a grind.

Luckily for the Raptors, the school’s starting quarterback in the fall can take a lump or two.

Gaccetta maneuvered through traffic on the bases and four errors from his defense in his third seven-inning, complete game of the season as Silver Creek beat the Warriors, 9-3, for its fourth straight win.

“Sure, we’ll make a bad play every now and then,” Gaccetta said with a confident shrug. “It’s high school baseball. But I trust these guys to make a play. If they make one error, they’re like, ‘I got your back. I got the next one.’ And I completely trust them.”

The same vibe appears to be true up and down the roster for Silver Creek (12-9, 5-5 5A/4A Granite Peaks League), which is playing its best baseball of the season with just over a week remaining in the regular season.

Gaccetta was brilliant in a matchup against fellow ace Zack Young, allowing three hits and no earned runs to improve to 7-1 on the season. He struck out eight, giving him 104 in his 105 2/3 career innings. And he closed things by fanning the side in the seventh.

“He’s a ‘one pitch at a time’ guy,” Silver Creek coach Brad Steward said. “A guy makes an error? Whatever. This is the pitch that matters. It’s already in the past. It’s a testament to his grit and competitiveness.”

Silver Creek’s bats, meanwhile, got to one of the best pitchers in the area with its third nine-run performance in four games. The Scottsdale Community College commit Young allowed six earned runs in 4 2/3 innings, after he’d given up just seven in his previous 50 frames this season.

The Raptors had five players with multiple hits, including Connor Lopez with three. They broke things open in a three-run fifth to make it 7-2. With three straight hits — a run-scoring single from Nathen Canfield, an RBI triple from Hector Correa, and a flyout from Noah Richardson that scored another — they’d chased the Warriors’ ace.

“We kind of hit a lull (earlier this month) but we had a really good practice one day where we all figured out what we need to do going forward,” Steward said. “And since then, they’ve been pulling the rope together and playing for each other and having fun.”

Silver Creek and Centaurus each have two games remaining to seal up a spot in 4A’s upcoming 32-team regional tournament on May 16-17. The Raptors moved up to 19th in CHSAA’s 4A rankings after the win. The Warriors, looking for their first regional postseason berth since 2019, sit at 27th.

“We need to win,” said Young, who’s been at the heart of the program’s best season in years, touting a sub-2.00 ERA and 88 strikeouts in 54 2/3 innings. “We have to win our next game. It’s kind of a must-win game.”

Centaurus is at 5A No. 42 Monarch on Tuesday, while Silver Creek is home against 4A No. 38 Niwot.