Carson splits tourney games

SPARKS - Carson High's baseball team earned a split decision in second-day action at the Mike Bearman Memorial Tournament at Mitchell Field.

Carson started the day with 14-4 mercy-rule victory over Fallon, and then dropped an 8-2 decision to Reed.

The Senators, 2-1, continue play today with a 12:30 game at McQueen, and then return to Ron McNutt Field for a 5:30 p.m. game against Douglas. Casey Wolfe and Charlie Banfield are expected to start on the mound today.

Unlike the opener against Elko when Carson struggled to score, the Senators had no problem doing so against the Green Wave, scoring in five of the six innings. The only downside to the game was that Carson left 14 runners on base, including the bases loaded three times.

"I thought we did a good job of capitalizing on situations," Carson coach Bryan Manoukian said. "We had runners on the entire game. We did leave the bases loaded three times, but we did make them pay."

The Senators scored three in the first against lefty Cody Young thanks to a run-scoring single by Chase Blueberg and a two-run single by Jace Zampirro, who went 2-for-2 with four RBIs.

Zampirro reached base all five times he batted. He walked twice and was also hit by a pitch.

"It's nice to be in the lineup and get a chance to hit," Zampirro said. "I just found some holes."

Carson starter Tyler Valley threw a lot of strikes, and retired six of the first seven batters he faced. He ran into trouble in the third, however.

After one out, Dylan Tedford, Dalton Frank and Clay Amezquita all singled. Amezquita drove in Tedford. A throwing error by Valley moved runners up, and then Joe Pyle drove in Frank with an infield out to make it 3-2. A wild pitch scored Amezquita and then Tristen Salazar singled home Dalton Johnson to give Fallon a 4-3 lead.

That was the extent of Fallon's offense. Valley threw two scoreless innings before turning the ball over to Chaz Nystrom, who worked a scoreless sixth.

"I thought Tyler did a great job," Manoukian said. "He threw a lot of strikes. He just lost focus in that one inning."

Carson answered back with four unearned runs in the bottom of the third to take a 7-4 lead.

Blueberg reached on an error ands advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Banfield. After Wolfe popped up, Zampirro was plunked with a pitch. Sophomore Joe Birri followed with a single to score Blueberg. Another run scored when Dom Norton's groundball was thrown away at first, and Gehrig Tucker completed the barrage with a two-run double to left.

Carson tacked on two in the fifth and four more in the sixth. Zampirro had a run-scoring hit in the fifth and sixth, and Birri and Schmidlin added run-scoring hits in the sixth.

Birri and Zampirro combined to go 4-for-7 with seven RBIs in the opener.

The second game was a lot closer than the final score indicated. Carson had a 2-1 lead entering the bottom of the fifth, but the Raiders erupted for seven runs in the final two innings off Norton and Danny Guthrie.

Carson opened with a run off hard-throwing Mark Nowaczewski in the first when TJ Thomsen beat out a bunt, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on a single by Luke Maher. Blueberg followed with a single, but Maher was thrown out at third.

Reed evened the game against Blueberg in the bottom of the first when Brett Chaney doubled to right-centerfield, moved to third on an infield out and scored on Tyler Starley's sacrifice fly.

Neither team scored in the next three innings. Nowaczewski fanned six in that stretch and allowed one runner to third. Blueberg allowed two hits over the next three innings and allowed just one runner to third.

Blueberg, who found himself in a lot of long counts, was removed after four innings, and that's when the game got away from the Senators.

"Chase hadn't reached his pitch count yet, but if we'd put him out (to start the inning) he would have gone well over. I thought he threw well and he kept us in the game."

"I didn't have my best stuff," Blueberg said. "I was able to spot my fastball. I was able to make pitches when I needed to.

"I could have gone on, but coach said it's early in the season. The baseball gods just didn't smile on me."

Norton, who pitched a scoreless inning against Elko, didn't throw nearly as well.

Chaney reached on a throwing error by Maher, and Casey Higgins dropped a bunt down which Maher didn't handle cleanly though Higgins had it beat out anyway. A wild pitch moved both runners up and Starley followed with a sacrifice fly, tying the game at 2.

Two walks and a single loaded the bases, and then Kevin Koszuth ripped a grandslam to deep right to make it 7-2.

Maher had two of Carson's five hits in the second game.