RENO - For the first time in six days, the Carson Blue Jays players left the ballpark with smiles on their faces.
The Blue Jays snapped a four-game losing streak with a 17-0 five-inning win over the Boise Senators Thursday afternoon in their debut at the Bishop Manogue tournament.
The Blue Jays improved to 6-13 on the year, and will face the GWN Badgers today at 11:30 a.m. at the Manogue JV field and then face Centennial, another Boise team, at 4:30 p.m., also on the JV field.
"It was really nice to be on the winning side," Carson coach Bryan Manoukian said. "We've played a tough schedule and lot some tough games. We lost a tough one to Douglas where we rallied to score six toe tie the game and then lost it in the next inning, and we lost TJ (Thomsen) for the rest of the season with a separated shoulder.
"It was nice to have a turnaround. We hit the ball well and pitched well."
Charlie Banfield threw a two-hit shutout and struck out eight. Both hits were allowed in the third inning. More than half of his run support came from two guys - Luke Maher and Nevin Elliott. Maher contributed a grandslam and a run-scoring single, while Elliott hit a three-run homer and a run-scoring single.
This one honestly could have been a lot worse. After the second inning, the Blue Jays played a lot of station-to-station baseball. The young Boise team was only charged with two errors, but there were a few other balls that went for hits that probably should have been caught.
"The run support was very good," Banfield said. "They weren't a real good team, and we did hit the ball real well. We played up to our level and did good job of putting them away."
After issuing a leadoff walk in the first, Banfield retired seven straight hitters before yielding back-to-back singles in the third. He ended the game by retiring the last seven hitters.
Banfield got all the support he needed in the first when Gehrig Tucker led off the game with a bloop double to right. He moved to third on Casey Wolfe's sacrifice bunt and scored on Elliott's single between third and short.
In the second, Boise's Perrin McCloskey walked Tyler Valley, Tucker and Wolfe, all with one out. Maher followed with his grandslam to left-centerfield to make it 5-0.
"It was something low," Maher said. "I've been trying to go to right-center more; use the whole field. I'm tired of pulling the ball."
Carson reloaded the bases on singles by Chase Blueberg and Jace Zampirro and a hit batsman. Dustin Dutcher was plunked by a pitch for the final run of the inning for a 6-0 lead.
The Blue Jays added four in the third to make it 10-0 on run-scoring singles by Maher and Zampirro plus a two-run single by Banfield.
An error on Brandon Allen's flyball scored a run to make it 11-0, and then Elliott hit a drive to left which hit the top of the scoreboard and went over to make it 14-0. Carson tacked on three more runs to complete the gruesome win.
Blueberg finished with three hits, while Elliott and Maher added two each.