Nevada Appeal Staff Report
The Western Nevada baseball team solidified its position in first place in the Scenic West Athletic Conference with two wins over Salt Lake Community College on Saturday on the road.
The Wildcats won 5-4 and 8-6 in 11 innings to move to 13-3 in conference and 17-9 overall. They will face Colorado Northwestern on Friday in their home-opener.
David Carroll picked up the win in the first game on five hits, three walks and three strikeouts. Rusty Devitt picked up the save in 1.2 innings of hitless work.
The second game was a battle as both teams swapped the lead several times.
The Wildcats held a 2-1 lead going into the bottom of the fifth, but the Bruins tacked on two runs.
In the sixth, Travis Feiner singled in a run and moved to second on a wild pitch. Dan Zyltra grounded out to short to move Feiner to third and Mike Long hit an RBI ground out to tie at 3-3.
The Bruins took the lead back in the sixth at 5-3. WNC tied it up in the seventh and exchanged the leads one more time in the 10th before Lance Ray's run tied it and Zyltra hit a two-RBI single to grab the lead.
Josh Moody returned in the game after being out since Feb. 3 with a broken pinky to earn the save.
"Hopefully we're not peaking yet," WNC coach D.J. Whittemore said. "We sure are finding a lot of ways to win and we've got a lot of players playing roles for us.
"We're having a lot of fun and guys are playing hard every day. I still think plenty of room for improvement and getting Moody back is going to be a big part of that."
Softball
The WNC softball lost 9-0 and 10-0 to Salt Lake at home to extend its losing streak to 16. The Wildcats play Colorado Northerwestern on the road next week.