By Justin Lawson
jlawson@nevadaappeal.com
When Matt Klein came back to John L. Harvey Field for the first time in about a year, he felt good and prepared to deliver an upset loss to his former teammates.
But within two batters the Wildcats already seemed poised to send Klein back to his new home.
Western Nevada dropped Northeastern Junior College 10-5 in their first-round game Thursday at the Western District tournament and in the process defeated Klein, who spent his freshman season with WNC before transferring in the hopes of finding more playing time.
The 11th-ranked Wildcats advanced to a semifinal game where they will face seventh-ranked Central Arizona at noon today.
Klein wasn't welcomed warmly by his former roommate and high school teammate at Sierra Vista High School in Las Vegas, Lance Ray. The sophomore cut into the Plainsmen's early 2-0 lead with a home run over the center field fence.
"It felt really good," Ray said of the home run. "Klein's a really good pitcher. He keeps the ball down ... I just got a good ball on him and I didn't have to swing hard. I hit a good line drive and I was just thinking double out of the box and it went over the fence."
The early home run didn't shake Klein, but it would be the defense behind him that would cost him a happy reunion. Northeastern made an error in the fourth and let three runs cross the plate, with only one going down as earned. Then it committed another in sixth that led to two more unearned runs and five total in the inning. Northeastern made four errors in the game.
The Wildcats led 9-3 lead after six innings.
"He pitched a good game, he just didn't get any plays behind him," WNC coach D.J. Whittemore said. "He probably pitched good enough to win. He definitely pitched good enough to keep them in the game."
Klein was pulled after the sixth. He gave up five earned runs on nine hits.
Whittemore didn't make it public prior to the game, but he used David Carroll on the mound to start things off. Carroll, normally the third starter in the rotation, started the first game of the Region XVIII tournament, making it an easy call for Whittemore.
"These guys can swing the bats," Whittemore said of Northeastern. "You've got to throw something that misses the barrel and he did. And Jerome (Pena, WNC catcher) called a great game and those two guys are really the story of the day as far as I'm concerned."
Carroll threw 111 pitches in the game, one of the highest totals for a Wildcats' pitcher this season, but kept the ball down in the zone throughout limiting the Plainsmen to just one extra-base hit. Mike Goldy led toff he game with a ground-rule double.
The feat was made more impressive by the switch to aluminum bats in the tourney. Both teams have used wood bats all season long, but will use aluminum for the remainder of their seasons.
"It's a lot different," Ray said. "I would rather play with wood. I like wood bats a lot better, but you've got play with aluminum bats some time."
The transition to aluminum certainly helped many of the Wildcats. Eric Maupin, who came into the tournament batting .194 on the season and had been showing improvement late in the year, went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and double.
Not everything went well for the Wildcats, though. Base running was a problem almost all day as Brian Barnett was caught trying to steal third in the first inning, Maupin was picked off trying to take second in the second inning and Jay Skilton also was picked off in the third. To add to the running woes, Travis Feiner was thrown out at the plate after he already took third on a throwing error and tried for more in the sixth.
"Klein just out-guessed me," Whittemore said. "He's a good left-hander and he picked when we were running. When left-handers pick when you run, you're out. I made a coaching mistake there and the guys were good enough to overcome it."
The Wildcats will start Josh Moody (5-0, 1.59 ERA) on the mound against Central Arizona, who beat Southern Idaho 11-1 in five innings Thursday. The Vaqueros will likely send out Randy Yard (9-1, 1.38 ERA).