Today the Nevada Appeal presents the second edition of its All-Carson Country baseball and softball teams.
The list feature top preps, position-by-position, from the six high school within our circulation range - Carson, Douglas, Galena, Dayton, Fernley and Yerington - in an attempt to present some of our area's best and applaud the success they had this spring.
We won't say we've named the top players. That's just an impossible call, considering the so many variables that exist from team to team, not to mention the differences between the levels of 4A and 3A ball. For example, many of the positions were loaded with all-stars.
Catcher was one of those positions - in both sports. The picks were Joe Mercer of Carson and Carrie Kordonowy of Dayton. However, excellent cases could be made to include other players, such as Galena senior Rusty Miller, who was solid behind the plate and hit .400. Or Carson senior Kellie Karasek, a four-year varsity starter who hit .375 from the cleanup spot. Or Yerington senior Michelle Sinclair, a first-team 3A all-state pick who hit .392 and was described by coach Rod Rundle as "another coach on the field - her knowledge of the game was so good." Or Galena sophomore Teresa Miller, who hit a school record .571 in conference.
Pitching on both lists was almost impossible to figure out. Each of the six area softball teams advanced into the postseason, all because of solid pitching: Galena's Jenn Molinari; the Carson tandem of Nicole Freeman and Melissa Stone, who have both signed to play in college; Yerington's Sherry Conway and Amy Sceirine, the 3A Division II co-MVPs; Christina Thomas, who pitched Fernley into the 3A state tournament; Tarrah Kizer, who pitched Douglas to the 4A state tournament; and Jennifer Dillie, who put up some impressive numbers at Dayton and touched hearts by using an old glove she had gotten as a freshman from her dad, a few months before he died.
While statistics weren't the sole basis for the All-Carson Country selections, they were a big part of the process. Some pretty good offensive numbers were put up, too.
For example, Galena hit 78 home runs and scored 377 times in 30 games before having the season end abruptly because of an unfortunate academic ineligibility situation that took it out of the Northern 4A playoffs. The Grizzlies ended their season by winning the Beyer Easter tournament in Modesto, Calif., capped by a 10-run victory against host Beyer, a team that eventually lost in California's Sac-Joaquin Section finals.
And the 3A state runner-up Fernley Vaqueros scored 415 runs during their 31-9 season. Three different Vaqueros drove in more than 50 runs - Josh Tippit (56), Tyler Selden (55) and multi-talented Matt Lambeth (50). Selden was a utility type guy who played extensively at shortstop and on the mound, and played in the recent Kelley Baseball Classic North-South all-star series at third base, the position he was given on the All-Carson Country list.
In addition to all the seniors who will be moving on after their graduations, Teresa Burrows and Jeanne Utterbach are stepping down from their head coach positions at Galena and Dayton respectively. Burrows is the only head coach Galena has had since opening its doors eight years ago, and she guided the Grizzlies to state titles in 1996, '97 and '99. She will continue to coach volleyball at Galena, not to mention her duties as department head and student government supervisor. Utterbach has served with extreme success as coach and athletic administrator at Dayton for 16 years at Dayton.
While there are sure to be countless disagreements over the picks made here, hopefully, you will enjoy the All-Carson Country presentation overall. And hopefully, we've provided a little extra recognition for all six of our local baseball and softball programs, and their players.