RENO - Carson High had a chance to put itself in the driver's seat in the 4A regional baseball playoffs, but Dustin Rosness and the McQueen Lancers had other ideas.
McQueen snapped a 5-all tie with a run in the top of sixth inning, and Rosness made it stand up by retiring the last six hitters of the game to give the Lancers a 6-5 win Thursday night at Reno High School.
The loss dropped Carson to 1-1 in its bracket, and the Senators will play Reno, a 6-0 winner over Spanish Springs, today at 3 p.m. at Reno. McQueen, 2-0, will play the Reno-Carson winner at 6 p.m.
After scoring five runs in the first two innings off Rosness, the Senators managed just one hit over the final five innings and made two huge mistakes on the basepaths. Carson coach Ron McNutt said his team's approach at the plate didn't change.
"Maybe their pitcher (Rosness) had something to do with that," he said. "We hit some balls, but they didn't go anywhere. He (Rosness) did a good job. We battled all night. We had a couple of chances to break the game open, but we didn't keep the lead. They (McQueen) hung in and battled."
"I was nervous," Rosness said. "I was just trying to throw strikes and let them put the ball in play. They're a good-hitting team. I thought our defense really picked it up."
Carson's Mike Handley was equally as tough down the stretch. He gave up two in the second and three in the third, but allowed only two hits and two walks over the last four innings. He finished with 13 strikeouts, but walked seven and hit a batter, and three of those runners scored.
Handley also supplied the bulk of Carson's offense, driving in three runs with singles in the first two innings, but it went to waste.
With the score tied at 5 in the fourth, Royal Good walked with one out. He moved to second on a wild pitch, but Rosness picked him off for the second out. Eric Melendez flied deep to right for the third out, a ball which easily would have moved Good to third, and given Willie Bowman a chance to break the tie.
Disaster struck again in the fifth.
With one out, Handley (2-for-2) was hit by a pitch, but was cut down at second on a steal attempt for the second out. Cameron Leck, who drove in a first-inning run, kept the inning alive with a walk. The Senators extended it when Murphy Gardner's groundball was thrown wildly past first by Travis Reynolds, allowing Leck to take third.
With Kevin Schlange at the plate, McNutt inserted freshman Joe Scates for Gardner. The Senators tried to run the cutthroat play where the runner breaks for second, and stays alive on the basepaths long enough for the runner on third to score. It failed miserably, as Scates actually ran into a tag to end the threat.
"These are high school kids, and those things are going to happen," McNutt said. "He (Scates) didn't stay in the rundown long enough. He actually ran into the tag. Those two plays didn't lose us the ballgame. We had other chances."
McQueen snapped the tie in the top of the sixth when Francis Dunlap walked and eventually scored on Brian Barnett's two-out infield single. Barnett barely beat the throw to first with a headfirst slide.
That set the stage for Rosness, who appeared to be much stronger in the last two innings than he was at the start of the game.
Notes: McNutt said that either Jason Alcasas or Wes Osmer would get the start against Reno, which has yet to name a starter ... Besides Handley's two hits, Carson got singles by Leck, Melendez and Schlange plus a double by Rotter.