Carson falls to Manogue

RENO - Carson High baseball coach Steve Cook was trying not to make any excuses after his team's 4-2 loss against Manogue at Manogue on Tuesday in the first round of the Northern 4A playoffs.

And Cook certainly wasn't taking anything away from Manogue's effort, especially that of Joe Wieland, who deserved the win after pitching a complete-game six-hitter. But it was still a bitter pill to swallow for Cook to see how the game ended.

Two critical calls went against Carson in the seventh inning, with one of them resulting in a controversial game-ending double play. As a result, Carson faces elimination today, needing to beat Damonte Ranch or McQueen at noon at Manogue to stay alive.

"We had a couple calls that didn't go our way," Cook said. "But we can't cry about it.

"Our backs are against the wall. It's playoff baseball. It's heartbreaking baseball."

The seventh began when Sean Costella hit a grounder and dived under the high throw and tag at first. But Glover ruled that Costella didn't touch first and he was tagged out. Costella and first base coach John Valley pleaded their case, but to no avail.

Royal Good followed with his second hit, a double off the centerfield wall. Brooks Greenlee then hit a high flyball to deep left in which the left fielder made a snow-cone catch.

Good tagged up and went to third. Glover ruled that Good had left too soon, resulting in a game-ending double play.

What hurt most about the play is Carson's No. 3 hitter Logan Parsley would have been the tying run.

"I'm not making any excuses about what happened," Cook said. "The kids on their side play just as tough as we do. They did a good job. They came through and we didn't."

Still, Cook couldn't help but to understandably think about what could have been. "I just felt like it got taken out of our hands a little bit," he said.

Carson's Josh Caron and Wieland were locked in a pitcher's duel until Caron had to be pulled in the fourth with a stiff neck.

"He'd been pitching through it all the way through the game," Cook said. "Every pitch he threw he was grimmacing."

Carson took a 1-0 lead in the second on Kevin Schlange's single, Jeremiah Teeter's sacrifice bunt and T.J. Hein's RBI infield single that bounced off an infielder into shallow left field.

Manogue took a 2-1 lead off of Caron in the fourth before he had to give way to Rob Valerius, who came in with runners at first and second and one out. Valerius got two popouts to end the inning.

The Senators tied it in the fifth after they loaded the bases with no outs. Costella doubled off the left field wall, Good walked and Greenlee hit a shot to left for a single to load the bases.

Carson was then the victim of bad luck when Parsley lined out to third. Markus Adams followed with a squeeze bunt to score Costella, but that would be it for the Senators.

Valerius got the first two outs in the sixth, but then allowed two singles and gave way to Nick Smallman. Dom Quilici hit a 2-2 curveball from Smallman to the leftcenter field gap. Perfect relays from Good and Parsley had the second runner trying to score from first nailed at the plate, but Greenlee couldn't hang onto the ball, making it 4-2. Greenlee had an otherwise solid day, throwing out two baserunners.

"Wieland did a great job," Cook said. "He dominated the whole game."