The Carson Country will be well represented today in a winners bracket game between two unbeaten teams at the Joe DiMaggio State Tournament.
The Carson Cardinals and Sierra Sun Devils have both gone 2-0 and set up a showdown in which the two teams will play each other at 9 a.m. today at Wooster. The winner will advance to the championship round.
Carson advanced to today's game by scoring eight runs in the bottom of the sixth inning for a come-from-behind 10-4 win over the Reed Bombers on Friday. The Sun Devils advanced with a 9-0 win over Sierra Valley on Thursday and a 13-3 victory against the Spanish Springs Bandits on Friday.
For Carson, Kyle Mandoki pitched six innings for the win. After allowing three runs in the first, Mandoki settled down to keep Carson in the game.
"I thought Kyle Mandoki did a great job of keeping us in there," Carson coach Steve Cook said.
Cook said his players have been understandable distracted by the Waterfall fire. "So far our kids have been battling," he said. "Right now our minds aren't totally on baseball obviously." The team has remembered Carson City with the battle cry, "C Hill," Cook said.
Carson also continues to play without starting shortstop Kevin Schlange, who is attending a family funeral. Cook said Schlange could be available on Sunday.
Ton Fagan and Murph Gardner each had two hits during the rally in the sixth. Fagan and Gardner each singled to begin the rally. Jason Alcasas and Royal Good each had two-run singles, Jeff Hurzel had an RBI single, then Fagan hit a two-run single and Gardner concluded the rally with an RBI double.
Royal Good added two hits and a run and Fagan scored both of his runs in the sixth. Mike Handley pitched a one-two-three seventh.
For the Sun Devils against the Bandits, Carson High graduate Willie Bowman doubled and scored in the first. The Sun Devils led 4-2 in the fourth when Carson graduate Aaron Henry led off with a single and scored on a single by Galena's Brian Evans. Dayton's Matt Bowman then belted a three-run home run to make it 8-2.
In the seventh, Henry walked and scored on Matt Bowman's single as Bowman had two hits and four RBI. In Thursday's game, Henry and Matt Bowman each had two hits and Willie Bowman belted a home run.