Cathleen Allison/Nevada Appeal
On paper, Thursday's matchup of North Valleys and Carson should have been about the Panthers' Jerad Harvey. The senior is among the best pitchers in Northern Nevada and has already committed to play collegiately at Nevada.
Carson's David Charles was supposed to be the footnote of the night, a checkmark in the loss column.
But the junior wasn't about to let anyone get the best of his Senators at Ron McNutt Field on opening night. He pitched lights out for the better part of five innings, striking out seven and carrying a no-hitter into the fifth inning to take a 9-5 victory.
"I definitely knew I had some competition and I wanted to step it up a notch," Charles said. "It's great (getting the win). We still have some stuff to work on, but all in all it's good."
Carson (1-0) will face Spanish Springs at 7 p.m. today at Ron McNutt Field.
Harvey, on the other hand, struggled in five innings of work as the Senators didn't waste any time jumping on his fastball. They scored three runs in the first inning as three of the first four batters crossed the plate. Brett Valley led off with a single and advanced to second on a bad throw over from Harvey to the first baseman. Two batters later, Kyle Stone knocked an RBI-double and was brought in by Paul Cagle, who hit another double in the ensuing at bat.
"I've never seen them hit that well," Charles said. "They were on fire with Harvey, eating him up."
Carson had a five-run lead after the second inning, but took their foot off the accelerator and switched it to cruise control.
In the third, the Senators had a player on first and third with no outs before a Thomas Purcell pop up, a Tyler Smith strikeout and a Thomas Preston ground out in succession ended the inning without either runner crossing home.
"Obviously, I'm impressed with our guys," Carson coach Cody Farnworth said. "We jumped on him early. They swung the bats and they showed that we can swing with anybody, but then we cruised. We've got to strive to win every inning and if we don't then we're going to be in trouble."
North Valleys crept back into the game in the fifth inning as Charles began to look human. Farnworth said Charles' legs started to give out on him as the back end of the Panthers' lineup put together a rally. They had back-to-back singles with their seven and eight hitters then had a sacrifice fly from a Zach White and an RBI double by Tyler Molder to bring in the first runs of the game.
Charles was pulled after the fifth inning, giving way to Connor Beattie. The sophomore took a 1-2-3 inning in the sixth, but had some command issues in the seventh as he walked four batters and allowed three runs. Farnworth, though, stuck with him as he struck out Josh Mathis to finish the game.
With just one game under their belts, the Senators said they needed to work on keeping the pedal down and not letting up until the final out.
"We just need to work on not having the fire," Charles said. "(We need) to have the mindset that it's 0-0 the entire game instead of looking up at the scoreboard, 'We're up 5-0, OK we got this game in the bag.' We just need to look 0-0 every inning."
Senator softball team wins opening game 3-0
The Carson softball team started the season with a 3-0 shutout against Capital Christian at a tournament in Sacramento.
The Senators got an outstanding performance in the circle from junior Daria Leid who struckout 10 in the 5 inning game. The game was called because of time limit.
Leid gave up one hit and walked one. Another batter reached base on an error.
Offensively, the Senators had seven hits, including an RBI single by Natalie Morrow in the first inning and a two-run home run by Belen Munoz in the third. Katie McEwan had two hits for Carson who is 1-0 on the young season.
The Senators return to action this morning against Davis at 10:45 a.m. and turn around and play El Camino at noon.