Carter homers twice in Carson's dramatic win

Carson City's 11-12-year-old all-stars were one strike away from championship elimination in the District 1 All-Star Tournament.

Asa Carter drilled a 1-2 pitch for a game-tying homer with two outs in the top of the sixth, and Carson went on to defeat Reno Continental 12-9 in seven innings at Governors Field.

Carson will play either Reno American or Washoe today at 7:30 p.m. for the right to reach the championship game on Monday.

Carter was huge, going 4-for-4 with two homers and four RBIs. John Collins and P.J White also homered for Carson.

"Asa had a night," Carson manager Jim Andrews said. "I was surprised they pitched to him (in the sixth). They had an open base. I thought for sure they would walk him.

"P.J. finally got the monkey off his back and homered."

The impressive thing about Carson's sixth-inning rally is that it came after John Holton and Connor Leahy, two of Carson's most-dangerous hitters had been retired.

Kyle Kunz walked and Carter followed with a homer, tying the game at 9.

White relieved with two outs and one on in the bottom of the sixth, retiring Zach Young to send the game into extra innings.

Collins, who had missed part of the tournament because of a family vacation, pounded a homer to right-center field to give Carson a 10-9 lead. Geo Ramirez followed with a double, and after a strikeout, White launched a round-tripper to right-centerfield to make it 12-9. Carson loaded the bases on a double by Kunz and two walks, but Ryan Pope grounded to second to end the rally.

In the bottom of the seventh, Carson gave Zane Brown a free pass to first. After reaching base three straight times, including a homer, Carson didn't give the left-handed slugger a pitch to hit the rest of the night.

White easily set down the next three hitters to end the game.

Carter also played a huge role on the defensive side of the game, throwing 68 pitches in relief of Cody Azevedo, who worked the first 2.1 innings.

Carter did give up five runs in the fourth which enabled Reno Continental to up its lead to 8-4 after four. Four infield errors made all the runs off Carter unearned in that inning.

In the top of the fifth, Carson closed to 9-7 with three runs.

Carter hit a solo homer with one out. Zach Simms walked and moved to third on a Collins double. Ramirez followed with a double to drive in one run. Collins stopped at third and scored on a sacrifice fly Andrews.

That set the stage for the dramatic sixth and Carter's clutch hit.