By CHARLES WHISNAND
Appeal Sports Editor
HENDERSON - It's definitely not the situation that the Western Nevada College baseball team wanted to be in, particularly in a tournament like this when the the first game is so important.
"The first game is the most important game of the tournament by far," said WNC coach D.J. Whittemore.
And the Wildcats' worst dream came true as it begins the Region 18 Tournament. Salt Lake Community College won its opening game of the event against Colorado Northwestern Community College on Wednesday. Now WNC will have to face Salt Lake ace Adam Gunn as it opens the tournament at 1 p.m. today at College of Southern Nevada.
If WNC wins its opener, it will play in a winner's bracket game possibly against No. 1 seeded CSN at 4 p.m. Friday. If the Wildcats keep winning, they'll need to win only three games to win the tournament.
But if the Wildcats lose to Salt Lake, they'll have to play six games to win the double elimination event. And they would have to return to play at 7 p.m. today just to stay alive.
The winner of the tournament will advance to next week's district tournament in Arizona. The winner of that tournament will advance to the JUCO World Series in Grand Junction, Colo.
In Gunn, WNC will face a pitcher in which it lost to 2-1 and beat 1-0 this season. "The tournament is not shaping up favorably for us," Whittemore said.
Without going into all the convoluted scenarios, Whittemore said being the No. 2 seed isn't what it's cracked up to be. "You'd rather be one or four," he said.
But WNC has nobody to blame but itself. The Wildcats (35-18, 29-11) finished second in the regular season, one game behind CSN. The three games that stand out the most that would have been the difference was a loss at last place CNCC and dropping a doubleheader at home against CSI. The loss in the nightcap of that doubleheader was especially painful as CSI scored two unearned runs in the seventh inning for a 4-3 win.
"We had plenty of opportunities," Whittemore said. "We made our bed and now we're lying in it.
"We're comfortable sleeping in it. We're going to wake up on the right side of it and play great and make the bed again."
Kyle Farrell, Kyle Starratt and Josh Moody are all candidates to start against Salt Lake. Whittemore said he has been telling Moody for the past two weeks he would start the tournament opener, but now he doesn't know.
"It's going to be a game-time decision," Whittemore said. "Im (inclined) to change my mind."
If WNC only has to play three games, then Starrat, Farell and Moody will be the only starting pitchers it needs. Throughout the tournament, Josh Creveling, Jose Barajas, Jordon Blanchard, Andrew Reid and Javy Perez - who has pitches his best of the season in the last two weeks - will all be available out of the bullpen.
Any of them could be candidates to start if WNC has to play more than three games this week.