WNC baseball, softball teams set for fall action

With the 2014 season a little more than five months away, the Western Nevada College baseball and softball teams will take advantage of the mild fall months ahead in Carson City to prepare their rosters.

Baseball coach D.J. Whittemore’s fall scrimmage schedule includes eight dates at John L. Harvey Field in Carson City.

Softball coach Leah Wentworth will learn a lot about her 22-player roster during a 15-game fall schedule that will include two tournaments in Utah and games at Edmonds Field in Carson City.

Entry to all home baseball and softball scrimmages is free.

The Wildcats baseball team will open its practice season with an alumni game at 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 7. Other home dates are noon Sunday, Sept. 15, against Lassen College of Susanville, Calif.; 1 p.m. Friday, Sept. 20, and 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 21, against Feather River College; and the Oct. 16-19 Players World Series, where the Wildcats roster splits into two teams to face off against each other.

Fans can see the Wildcats softball scrimmages at Edmonds Sports Complex in Carson City on Sept. 13, when they host College of the Siskiyous for 1 and 3 p.m. games.

Whittemore will use the fall schedule to bring along his young pitching staff, which includes 11 new faces.

“So far, it’s evident that we have a lot of high-quality character, a lot of intelligent players, a lot of players with work ethic,” he said.

Wentworth said the scrimmage season “will give them some experience and help them eliminate some of the nerves that go into that first game, especially for the freshmen. We’ll get a good look at everyone that will give us an idea of what to work on in the rest of the fall.”

Wentworth’s club will launch its preseason schedule with eight scrimmages in three days at the TC Thunder Tournament Sept. 6-8 in Tooele, Utah. The highlight of the scrimmage season will come Sept. 28, when the Wildcats travel to the Utah Valley University Tournament in Orem, Utah. The Wildcats will scrimmage conference opponent College of Southern Idaho and NCAA Division I teams Weber State and Utah Valley.

The softball team will cap its scrimmage slate with a doubleheader against Shasta College on Saturday, Oct. 5, in Redding, Calif.

Highlighting the Wildcats’ fall road baseball schedule will be the Scenic West Conference All-Star Game on Sept. 13-14, at the College of Southern Nevada. Whittemore’s team also will scrimmage against an opponent to be determined Sept. 28 at the University of Nevada; at Feather River College on Oct. 4 and 6 in Quincy, Calif.; and at Delta College on Oct. 11 in Stockton, Calif.

The Wildcats softball team will open its 2014 season Jan. 31 at a tournament in Henderson. The baseball squad will also begin its season on Jan. 31, traveling to meet South Mountain College in Phoenix.