Rick GunnLevi Diaz, Carson Cardinals pitcher, tags out San Jose's Darren Vieira sliding into home on Thursday morning.
Baseball fans in Northern Nevada became accustomed to the sight of Joey Hooft and Billy Paganetti hitting home runs for Galena High School the last two years.
They were back at it Thursday night when Hooft hit a two-run shot in the first inning and Paganetti hit a solo home run in the second to help the Carson Capitols to a 9-2 victory against Feather River College in the opening game of a doubleheader at Carson High School's Ron McNutt Field.
Anthony Carano hit a three-run homer and the University of Miami-bound Hooft added another two-run blast as the Capitols won game two 11-3 to complete a sweep of their twilight twin-bill.
Hooft's two-run homer gave the Capitols a 2-0 lead in the first inning against Feather River starter Nate Landa of Yerington. Paganetti, playing for the first time in nearly a month, came up with one out in the second inning and connected on a drive just to the right of the scoreboard in center field.
Hooft went 3-for-4 in the game, while Brett McMillan, Austin Graham, Carl Winter and Paganetti contributed two hits each.
Tim Priess pitched six innings to pick up the win. Graham, who has been nursing a sore shoulder over the past month, came on to pitch a scoreless seventh.
The Feather River Golden Eagles, who advanced to the California community college state tournament super regionals in May, were led Bruce Jacobsen and Jordan Twohig who both went 2-for-3.
In game two, Feather River took a 2-1 lead in the top of the second inning on Julian Russell's bases loaded double.
The Capitols answered with six runs in the bottom half of the inning. Carano hit a line drive over the Stokes & Winter sign in left-center field for a three-run homer and Hooft followed with a high arching two-run drive over the fence in right-center field to give the Capitols a 7-2 lead. The home run was Hooft's 18th of the summer season.
The Capitols scored four more runs in the fifth inning to put the game away. Carl Winter doubled into the gap in right-center field to drive two runs home and then scored on Sean Scobee's double to left-center.
Brandon Evans pitched six innings of three-hit ball to earn the win for the Capitols, with assistance from the hard-throwing Scobee, who came on in the seventh and struck out two of the four batters he faced to close out the contest.
The Capitols, now 40-11, play their final home games of their summer season today and Saturday when they host the Santa Clara (Calif.) Red Sox for back-to-back doubleheaders. The two teams play a 5 p.m. doubleheader today at Carson High and will come back to play two more games on Saturday at 5 p.m.
The Capitols begin play in the International Travel Baseball World Championships Tuesday night in Winter Haven, Fla.