By Justin Lawson
jlawson@nevadaappeal.com
Daniel Zylstra came into Friday as the Wildcats' eighth-best hitter, making him worthy of the seven spot in the lineup. But the freshman came up with two RBI-singles to help lead Western Nevada to a 6-1 victory over Southern Idaho in the semifinal game of the Region XVIII baseball tournament at John L. Harvey Field.
"This is what we've worked for all year," Zylstra said. "A lot of time, a lot of hard work and we're excited."
The 11th-ranked Wildcats have clinched a spot in the district tournament, which begins May 14, and will play for the region title at noon today against Southern Idaho again. The district tournament will be hosted by the winner of the Region XVIII tourney.
The two singles were Zylstra's only hits of the day (2-for-4), but more importantly helped keep Jordan Lewis on the mound for 7.2 innings and preserve the arms of the pitching staff one more day. Lewis (9-0) struggled at times, but battled through to hold the Golden Eagles to seven hits.
"I think he was born to pitch, I really do," WNC coach D.J. Whittemore said. "I don't think he does anything better than pitch. We knew we were getting somebody who was capable of pitching big games and we watched him all fall and he pitched just like that: Always teetering on the edge of not being dominant. But at the end of the day, they don't score and they don't get any hits."
Lewis got into trouble in the third inning when he hit Lionel Morrill and walked Tanner Craswell. Andy Fox followed, just missing a home run to left field that landed about a foot short of the 364-foot mark and glanced off Brian Barnett's glove as he slammed into the wall. Barnett recovered to keep Craswell from scoring and limit the damage to one run.
The run cut the Wildcats' lead to 4-1; and with runners at second and third with one out, the Golden Eagles threatened to dig into the lead even more. Pitching coach Kevin Edwards, who missed yesterday's game with the stomach flu after going to the emergency room the night before, visited Lewis on the mound to calm him down.
"I just wasn't locating very well for the first half of the game," said the freshman Lewis. "I was just trying to figure out my mechanics. I was thinking too much between pitches, but after Eddie came out and talked to me, I kind of relaxed and didn't think it about anymore."
He got Garrett Wolf to ground out and struck out Tyler Chism to end the inning.
Lewis didn't see more than four batters in the next four innings. He ran into trouble again in the eighth when the Golden Eagles loaded the bases.
Kramer Champlin came in and got a ground out to end the inning and then set CSI down in order in the ninth for the save.
Zylstra's first single came in the first inning with the Wildcats up 2-0, he brought in Mike Long and Jerome Pena, both reached on RBI base hits. The other came in the sixth as insurance runs.
The Wildcats need to win just one of two games in the double-elimination tournament to clinch the title. Because the Golden Eagles lost to WNC on Friday, they had to come out of the loser's bracket to reach the title game and need to lose just one time to be out of the tournament.
"I don't know how long this feeling's going to last, but I'm really satisfied right now," Whittemore said. "This is a big monkey off our shoulders and we're guaranteeing another week of baseball. Then in an hour I'm going to be real focused on being hungry tomorrow, but right now this feels really good."
Salt Lake 6, Southern Nevada 4
The Salt Lake Bruins trailed 4-3 going into the top of the ninth before Duncan Blades hit a three-run, opposite-field home run.
Blades was 2-for-4 on the day with three home runs. Zack McCleskey picked up the win and Nelson Castleberry came in for the save.
The Coyotes came into the tournament as the second-seeded team, but lost both of their games and extended their losing streak to five games after losing three games coming into the tourney. They were the defending regional champion.
Southern Idaho 15, Salt Lake 5
The Golden Eagles teetered on getting a five-inning win, but had wait until the seventh to put this game in the books. They took an early 8-0 lead and almost never looked back.
The only sticking points for CSI was that it had to throw four pitchers in the game to get the win. Logan Clewes was the game's winning pitcher. He pitched the final 2.1 innings and struck out two batters.