The Western Nevada baseball team got a good look at today's opponent, Eastern Utah, in the first round of the Region XVIII baseball tournament at John L. Harvey Field.
The No. 5-seeded Golden Eagles just eked out a 4-3 upset win over the fourth-seeded Salt Lake Bruins on Wednesday and had to use three pitchers in the process.
Eastern Utah jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a Justin Williams leadoff homer to left field. The Golden Eagles, though, gave the lead right back in the bottom half of the inning after walking Ryan Bernal, making an error that let JR Roland reach base and Felix Segovia drove Bernal in.
The Bruins got on top when Duncan Blades scored an unearned run in the fourth.
But the deficit didn't last long. Eastern Utah scored three runs in the fifth, all of Salt Lake starter Derek Christensen, to take a 4-2 lead.
The Golden Eagles had to hold on late when Roland led off the ninth with home run, but closer Cameron Schmidt struck out David Johnson, gave up a single to Brandon Keller and pitched Scott Shipley into a fielder's choice. Shipley then was run down between first and second for the final out.
Top-seeded WNC will face Eastern Utah at 10 a.m. today.
Southern Idaho 8, Colorado NW 0
The other Golden Eagles in the region walked away with an easy victory over the Spartans, who won just three league games, in a run-rule shortened eight innings.
The quick win helped preserve the arms of the game's starter, Tyler Barrett who threw seven innings, and the bullpen. Third-seeded Southern Idaho used just one other pitcher, Trey Mohummad, to finish the game.
"I was actually real excited to play this game," CSI coach Boomer Walker said. "Obviously, you go into your season and you want a bye in the first round, but this group of guys likes to play the game so an extra added game, hopefully we can use that to our advantage."
CSI catcher Victor Spencer went 2-for-5 with home run and three RBIs. He also hit the game-ending RBI in the eighth inning.
Southern Idaho will play second-seeded Southern Nevada at 1 p.m. today.
Salt Lake 6, Colorado NW 4
The Spartans were the first team to make an exit from the tournament. They staged a brief comeback attempt in the final inning, where they scored their only four runs of the day, but left the tying runs on base.
Salt Lake starting pitcher Nelson Castleberry went eight inning, striking out 12 batters and giving up just three hits.
The Bruins will face the lowest seeded losing team from today's games in the late afternoon elimination game.