Thanks to the three-hit pitching of senior Matt Rutledge and the hitting of Dustin Buttner, the Carson Senators passed their first litmus test of the season.
Buttner's two-out solo homer in the sixth snapped a 2-all tie and gave the No. 4 Senators a 3-2 win over No. 2 Bishop Manogue in the opening game of their three-game Sierra League baseball series Thursday afternoon at Ron McNutt Field.
The win boosted Carson's record to 8-0 overall, 4-0 in league. The Miners are 0-1 in league after drawing a bye last week. The series continues Saturday in Reno with a doubleheader starting at 11 a.m. with Carson sending David Charles and Tyler Smith to the mound against the Miners' duo of Ben Hewson and Ryan Baker.
"That was a great high school ballgame," Carson coach Cody Farnworth said. "I wanted to see what we were going to do. That's a great team over there."
'We played hard," Manogue coach Charles Oppio said. "We made a couple of mistakes that cost us a chance to win a close game. Both pitchers (Rutledge and Casey Schapper) threw great."
Rutledge was a little better in the late innings, retiring nine of the last 11 batters he faced, including the final five. The CHS right-hander admitted that going against Schapper fired him up a bit. Rutledge, who threw 80 pitches in his four-inning stint last week, didn't reach 80 until the sixth inning.
"Matt came out and threw strikes," Farnworth said. "He's going to compete (out there). I wasn't worried about that."
"I tried to stay ahead and let my defense work," Rutledge said. "When I got to the sixth and they told me I was at 82, that's usually where I'm at in the third or fourth inning."
And, even though Carson's offense struggled at times against Schapper, Rutledge said he never got frustrated and knew his teammates would come through for him.
Carson did get three hits in the opening inning, but Kyle Stone was thrown out trying to score from second on Cody Barr's single. After that, Schapper no-hit Carson until the fifth inning when the Senators wiped out a 2-0 deficit and tied the game at 2.
Rutledge helped his cause with a single to right, and after screwing up two bunt attempts, Cody Blueberg singled Rutledge to third. After pinch-hitter Tommy Purcell struck out, lead-off hitter Brett Valley squeezed home a run to make it 2-1. Tommy Preston followed with a groundball to third and Justin Bowman threw wildly to first, allowing Blueberg to score the tying run.
Rutledge breezed through the sixth, and it appeared that Schapper would get through the sixth after he picked off Conner Beattie at first base for the second out. Two pitches later, Buttner hammered a one-strike pitch over the fence to break the tie. It was Buttner's fifth hit and 12th RBI in the past three games.
"I don't remember," Buttner said when asked what pitch he hit. "I think it was a slider. This shows how good we can really be."
- Contact Darrell Moody at dmoody@nevadaappeal.com, or by calling 775 881-1281
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