Brad Horn/Nevada Appeal
A four-game series sweep in which a team wins by a combined 27 runs, normally doesn't lend itself to too much drama. But for the Western Nevada baseball team, there was more theatrics in trying to get the pitching staff some work Saturday than there was in the outcome of the game.
In the Wildcats' attempt to get more pitchers involved in their 6-0 and 8-1 victories Saturday against Colorado Northwestern at John L. Harvey Field, David Carroll lost his bid for the first no-hitter of his career.
The series sweep extended WNC's (17-3 SWAC, 23-9) win streak to eight games and kept it in first place in the Scenic West Athletic Conference, one game ahead of Southern Nevada (16-4, 24-12). The Wildcats next play Eastern Utah at home in a four game series beginning Friday.
Carroll, a freshman from Las Vegas, thought a no-hitter was intact in the third inning after the first hit of the game wasn't fielded cleanly by third baseman Travis Feiner and ruled an error on the field's scoreboard. The error stayed on the board until the fifth inning when a player told the scoreboard operator that the official scorer ruled it a hit.
"I just wanted to throw as hard as I could for as long as could," said Carroll, who stuck out seven and walked two. "What ever happens after that is up to the coaches. That ball to Feiner, it might have been a hit, maybe not...It's fine, I'm fine with the decision."
Carroll said he was aware of the no-hit bid when his teammates stayed away from him in the dugout and didn't talk to him. He also noticed the change on the scoreboard.
The call was ultimately left up to the WNC coaching staff, who kept the official score for the game.
"It was a tough call," WNC coach D.J. Whittemore said. "We thought it was hit, the ball that got under Feiner's glove, but you know it's not something that we haven't done before. (Former WNC pitcher Andrew) Garcia got pulled after six innings of no-hit ball against Colorado Northwestern in the postseason. It's always team first, it has to be. If guys want to get caught up in individual stats then we're not going to be very good."
The pitching drama didn't end there for a team that failed to get more than three pitchers on the mound Friday in 12 innings and had just 221 innings pitched coming into the series, the third least in the conference.
In the first game, the Wildcats led 6-0 in the fifth inning after scoring three runs, but were threatening to make it a five-inning, run-rule game when Brian Barnett came to the plate with the bases loaded. Whittemore, knowing Barnett is second in the conference with five home runs, paced around the coach's box on the first baseline as if he was worried about the game ending early. Barnett, though, hit into a fielder's choice to end the inning.
"I'm a karma guy so I'm never going to root for one of our guys to get out," Whittemore said. "It's kind of like when you've got something to do in your car and you're rooting for a red light and it's always green or when you want a green light and it's red. I'm not in the rooting business."
The Wildcats ended up getting Josh Moody on the mound for the final two innings as he attempts to get back into the starting rotation after missing most of the season with a broken pinkie on his throwing hand. He gave up one hit and struck out two.
In the second game another four pitchers saw time, taking the series total to nine out of the 14 pitchers on the roster.
"It's so tough when we only play four games a week and we don't get any mid-week games," Whittemore said. "We've got a bunch of good pitchers competing for spots. On the one hand, we're happy we got nine guys work, but we're disappointed that (Jake) Waardenburg and (Rusty) Devitt didn't get work cause those guys are a couple work horses for us."