Tonight's schedule
Carson City (4-0) vs. Reno American West (1-3), 5 p.m.
Sparks Centennial (2-2) vs. Carson Valley (3-1), 5 p.m.
Washoe (3-1) vs. Reno Continental (3-1), 8 p.m.
Truckee (4-0) vs. South Tahoe (2-2), 8 p.m.
Carson City Little League's 9-10 all-star team completed its undefeated run through pool play Wednesday night with a 12-6 win over Reno American East at Governors Field.
Carson City scored nine runs in the first two innings and then added single runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings to grab its fourth straight victory. Jace Keema went 4-for-5 and drove in two runs for Carson.
Now it's on to the games that really matter - the single-elimination portion of the tournament - and Carson has to be one of the favorites based on its pool-play performance.
Carson's offense and pitching have been absolutely magnificent through four games. Carson has outscored its opponents 59-9 and is averaging 14.2 hits per contest.
There are no easy marks in the Carson lineup. It goes seven or eight deep.
"They have all been hitting the ball well," manager Mike Fettic said. "I don't like to name individuals. "I've been surprised, absolutely. To take a team of 12 individuals from different teams and do what we've been doing is very good. This is a good group of boys."
What's impressive about the offensive output is that it isn't just one or two guys doing the damage. Zach Simms (.636), Bryce Moyle (.500, 6 RBI), Jayden DeJoseph (.611, 11 RBI), Keema (.500, 10 RBI), Tez Allen (.428, 8 RBI), Kyle Krebs (.363, 6 RBI) and Jesse Lopez (.500) have all contributed heavily at the plate. DeJoseph and Keema lead the team in RBIs with 11 and 10, respectively.
The pitching has been superb, too. Krebs threw a four-inning shutout in the opener against Sparks Centennial, while Simms and Allen combined on a two-hit shutout against Reno National. DeJoseph, Moyle and Allen pitched in the 20-3 win over South Tahoe. In the pool finale, Carson used five different pitchers.
"We're deeep in pitching," Fettic said. "We have eight that can throw and throw well. We have kids that can throw in the 70-pitch range if we need them to."
Fielding is the one area that Fettic would like to see his team improve. Carson committed four errors in its first three games.
"The kids don't make many errors," Fettic said. "If there is an area we want to improve that's the one."
Another impressive thing about this group is they aren't looking ahead to future games or future tournaments. Fettic knows there are teams like Reno Continental, Washoe and Carson Valley out there - all three have been impressive in pool play - that would like nothing more than to knock off the host squad.
"Everybody talks about Washoe being a tough team," Fettic said. "I don't know if they are or aren't (because we haven't played them). We've just got our head down and we're focusing on winning each game we play. It's one game at a time and one tournament at a time."