Carson baseball settles for split

The Carson High baseball team wasn't about allow the nightmare it experienced at the end of its opener in a doubleheader to happen again.

After letting a 4-2 lead slip away late in an 8-6 loss in eight innings in the opener, the Senators came back to win the nightcap 13-2 in a game that was called after 4 1/2 innings due to the mercy rule on Saturday at Ron McNutt Field.

"We were kind of low," said Royal Good, who had three hits in the nightcap. "We had the game there at the end. We couldn't finish it like we know how to. It's all right. It taught us a lesson."

Carson (19-7, 15-3 in the Sierra League) did end up taking two-of-three in the series with Wooster heading into a tough week to finish the regular season against the Northern 4A's league leaders. The Senators will host High Desert League leader McQueen at 5 p.m. Monday and then will play Sierra League frontrunner in Reno in a three-game series on Wednesday (at Reno), Thursday (at Carson) and Friday (at Reno).

"We weren't feeling too good about ourselves after the first game," Carson coach Steve Cook said. "We didn't do things well to say the least. To come back and play the way we did in the second game was very important for us.

"We would have liked to ge the sweep, but two of three is getting the job done. Wooster gave us what we expected."

The Senators received outstanding efforts from their starting pitchers in both games in Jack Jacquet and Kyle Mandoki. Jacquet struck out seven over six innings in the opener and Mandoki pitched a complete game two-hitter over five innings in the nightcap. "Both our starting pitchers did a good job," Cook said.

In the nightcap, Carson trailed 1-0 in the second when it took control of the game by scoring six runs. Tony Fagan was hit by a pitch and after an error gave Carson runners at first and second with no outs, both runners moved up to second and third on Josh Caron's sacrifice bunt. Both runners then scored on an errant pickoff throw at third.

T.J. Hein was then hit by a pitch and Chris Ames singled. Good followed with an RBI single and walks to Kevin Schlange and Logan Parsley forced in a run. Wooster's female pitcher, Lilly Jacobson, who is in her second year as a varsity pitcher for the Colts, entered the game.

Jacquet got an RBI single and Fagan walked to force in a run to give Carson a 6-1 lead before Jacobson induced a double play to end the inning. But in the third, Carson and Hein walked, Good hit a two-run single and Parsley followed with an RBI single to make it 9-1 and chase Jacobson.

The Senators took a 13-2 lead in the fourth when Fagan and Caron singled, Hein hit an RBI single, Good had an RBI double and Markus Adams had a two-run single. Jack Maloney walked to load the bases, but Carson left the bases loaded. Parsley added two hits.

Carson took a 1-0 lead in the opener when Good walked and eventually scored on two errors. But Jacquet made his only mistake in the third when he gave up Cam Carroll's two-run home run that gave Wooster a 2-1 lead.

The Senators caught a break in the sixth when Parsley's bad hop hit rolled into shallow right field and he was able to hustle to second to turn it into a double. Fagan followed by sending a drive over the rightcenter field fence for a two-run shot to give Carson a 3-2 lead. Adams walked and came all the away around on a passed ball and two wild pitches to make it 4-2.

The normally reliable Nick Smallman came in to nail down the win in the seventh. A double, hit batsman and walk loaded the bases with one out. Smallman froze Carroll with a fastball at the knees on the outside corner on a 3-2 pitch for the second out.

The next batter hit a groundball up the middle for an RBI infield single as shortstop Schlange made a diving stop of the ball to prevent the tying run from scoring. But the tying run eventually scored on a wild pitch, forcing extra innings.

The eighth was a nightmare as Wooster scored four runs on the strength of two walks, two hit batsmen, two errors and two wild pitches.

"Usually when we give Nick the ball it's lights out," Cook said. "One thing he does have is a short memory."

Rob Valerius came into the game and eventually got a popup and a double play with runners at first and third and no outs to end the inning. Still, the Senators weren't done.

Fagan singled and Valerius followed with a two-run shot over the right field fence to make it 8-6. Hein followed with a double to bring the tying run to the plate, but he was left stranded to end the game. Parsley also doubled, Fagan had two hits and Schlange added a hit.