WNCC baseball sweeps doubleheader

Almost everything continues to go well for the Western Nevada Community College baseball team as it heads into the off season.

WNCC ended its fall season with two shutout wins and heads into the recruiting season with commitments from two of Northern Nevada's top high school senior players.

Wildcat coach D.J. Whittemore said he has received non-binding verbal commitments from Carson High's Brooks Greenlee and Douglas High's Nate Whalin. On the field on Saturday, WNCC beat Shasta Community College 8-0 and Lassen Community College 9-0 in Susanville, Calif. to end the fall season at 12-5.

WNCC was able to sweep even though it only had about half its team. Half of the Wildcat players failed to meet their fundraising requirements and were not allowed on the trip.

Both Greenlee, a catcher-infielder, and Whalin, an outfielder are outstanding athletes, Whalin is a top lineman for the Douglas football team that is in first in the Sierra League.

Whittemore also said he's recruiting another one of Northern Nevada's top players, Carson pitcher-outfielder Tony Fagan.

On Saturday, WNCC pitching walked just two batters in the two games. Against Shasta, Stephen Sauer allowed just two hits over six innings while striking out 10. Andrew Reid, Chad Walling and Kyle Bondurant all pitched a scoreless inning.

Walling was also 3-for-5 with a double, Logan Parsley reached base four times as he was 1-for-2 with two walks and was hit once, Thomas Miller doubled, Ryan Simpson had two hits, Brad Carlsen tripled, Josh Creveling doubled twice, Kevin Schlange doubled and Taylor Meiras added a hit.

The game also featured a a double play in which Simpson at catcher, Miller at first, Parsley at second and Schlange at shortstop combined on a 2-3-4-6-2 double play.

Against Lassen, Creveling threw five scoreless innings and Jake Bottari and Jesse Rasner each pitched two scoreless innings as they combined on a three-hit shutout. Carlsen had three hits, including a grand slam home run and a triple, Simpson doubled and hit a solo homer, Reid doubled twice, Parsley had a hit and two stolen bases and Bondurant added a hit.

The game ended when Brad Carlsen nailed a runner at home from right field. Whittemore also said Schlange had a solid day defensively at short.

"Just all the way around we played great baseball," Whittemore said. "We put it all together for one day. Probably the best day of the year for us."