Austin Bischoff and the Fallon baseball team took two of three games from Dayton last weekend.
The Greenwave baseball team succeeded in avoiding the first of two trap series as it inches closer to a showdown with second-place South Tahoe in two weeks.
Fallon rode its pitching in Friday’s opener against Dayton, 9-2, before winning a slugfest in Saturday’s first game of the doubleheader, 13-11. The Greenwave, though, saw their six-game winning streak snapped when the Dust Devils won the finale, 10-5.
Fallon (12-6 Northern Division I-A) travels to last-place Sparks (3-17) this weekend before the regular-season finale at home against the Vikings (12-5) next week.
Dayton (6-11), meanwhile, visited South Tahoe on Tuesday and travels to Truckee this weekend before entertaining Elko next week.
The top four teams advance to the regional tournament, which will be at South Tahoe on May 16-17. The state tournament will be played at Reno high schools and the University of Nevada’s Peccole Park the following week.
Senior hurler Tristen Salazar pitched the best game of the season, going all seven innings while striking out five, walking none and yielding seven hits in Friday’s opener.
Dayton, though, struck first with a run off Salazar in the second inning before Fallon came back with one in the third and two in the fourth. The Greenwave scored three times in each of the fifth and sixth innings before the Dust Devils added their final run in the bottom of the sixth.
Salazar was also strong at the plate, going 2-for 4, including a double, and driving in two runs. Branden Beeghly and Cody Long each doubled and singled and drove in two, while Austin Bischoff, Trae Workman and Sage Orozco each drove in a run.
Dalton Frank, Workman and Long each stole a base.
Two runs in the final inning were much appreciated with Fallon taking a nine-run lead into the seventh inning. After the Greenwave scored seven runs in the first three innings and six in the final three, Dayton tallied seven in the final inning to nearly complete a nine-run comeback.
Long opened the second game strong, yielding four runs before entering the seventh inning. The senior southpaw, though, gave up two more runs without recording an out before Chase McElvain took over. However, McElvain ran into trouble, giving up five runs on six hits, while recording two outs, before Salazar came back to get the final out and save.
Despite giving up 10 hits, Long struck out five and walked only two to earn the win.
Four players collected multi-hit games including Joe Pyle who singled three times and had two stolen bases. Alex Mendez homered and singled, Tyler Bagby doubled twice, Long doubled and singled and Workman singled twice for the Greenwave.
Beeghly, Mendez and Long each had two RBIs, while Frank, Bagby and Workman each drove in one. Along with Pyle’s two stolen bags, Frank had two steals and Workman, Bischoff and Bagby each swiped a bag.
The first three innings of the series finale saw 12 runners cross the plate as Dayton took an 8-4 lead. Fallon added its final run in the fourth inning to draw within three before Dayton added two more in the fifth.
Bagby homered twice with three RBIs to lead Fallon. Long singled twice and drove in one while Frank singled in a run. Jack Swisher and Pyle each stole a base.
Mendez took the loss, going only 1 2/3 innings and giving up seven runs, including two earned. Mendez struck out one, walked two and gave up three hits, including a home run.