GARDNERVILLE - Nevin Elliott walked with the bases loaded to force in T.J. Thomsen with the winning run to give Carson Babe Ruth a 6-5 win over Reno West Tuesday night in the championship game of the 13-year-old State Tournament at Lampe Park.
The win sends Carson to the Pacific Southwest Regionals, which get under way Aug. 6 in Eureka, Calif.
Reno West forced the extra game with a thrilling 6-5 victory in the first game of the evening when a great relay throw got to the plate in time to get Thomsen, who was trying to score from first on Zach Harjes' double to right-centerfield in the bottom of the seventh.
"Why didn't we do that the first game," Carson manager Jim Blueberg said after the second-game victory. "We played through our mistakes. There is a lot of ability on this team. We did it the hard way."
Reno West had tied the game at 5 in the top of the seventh, taking advantage of a Carson error on a double steal.
Thompson led off the Carson seventh with his fourth walk of the game. That's when the cat-and-mouse tactics started. Four times the Reno West pitcher threw to first base. After a pitch to Harjes, another pickoff move was attempted. Another pitch and another pickoff move followed before Thomsen stole second.
Harjes singled between third and short, sending Thomsen to third. Jace Zampirro was intentionally walked to load the bases. Up stepped Elliott, who was 2-for-2 with a walk. Eliiott drew a walk-off walk, and the Carson players dogpiled near home plate.
Carson fought back from 3-0 and 4-3 deficits to pick up the win.
Gehrig Tucker attoned for a baserunning mistake by pitching three solid innings of relief to pick up the victory. He retired all three batters he faced in the fifth, wiggled out of bases-loaded jam in the sixth by getting Nick Agliolo on strikes and would have worked a scoreless seventh except for an error.
"He's our go-to guy," Blueberg Jr. said. "He can come in and throw strikes. He pitched five innings of no-hit ball on Sunday and then came back tonight for three innings. He did a nice job."
Besides the two hits from Elliott and Harjes, Carson got hits from Zach Andrews, Luke Maher and Tucker.
In the first game, Carson held a 4-1 lead through five innings with a single run in the first, two in the third and one in the fifth. Harjes allowed only three hits and one unearned run.
Reno struck for five runs on just three hits in the sixth led by Tenaya Brown's two-run, two-out single. Carson needed three pitchers to get through the inning.
Carson tried to rally in the seventh, but Thomsen, the tying run, was thrown out at the plate.
Zampirro and Thomsen led Carson with two hits apiece.