RENO — When Carson High lefty Bryce Moyle gets his off-speed pitches in the strike zone, he’s one of the premier pitchers in Northern Nevada, and Saturday afternoon he was at his best.
Moyle scattered six hits, fanned five and didn’t allow an earned run in the Senators’ 4-1 win over McQueen at Kuraisa Field.
The win gave the Senators a series sweep, boosting their overall record to 8-3 and 4-2 in Northern Division I play. McQueen dropped to 3-6-1 and 2-4, respectively.
Moyle demonstrated from the outset he would be able to throw off-speed pitches for strikes at any count, and that’s bad news for hitters.
“Being able to throw off-speed for strikes has been my achilles heel,” Moyle said. “I’ve been working hard in practice; in the bullpen. It’s all about the release point.
“They don’t know what’s coming (when I can throw off-speed at any time). They are seeing four different speeds and four different movements.”
Carson coach Bryan Manoukian explained further.
“In high school when a pitcher falls behind, they only have one pitch they go to. When that happens things become one dimensional. When you can throw multi pitches for strikes at any time, young hitters get out of rhythm. Not many high school pitchers can do that, but Bryce is one of those guys.
“He pitched an extraordinary game. We didn’t play very good defense behind him (5 errors). He had to pitch over those mistakes.”
Moyle left after throwing 99 pitches. Jared Barnard pitched a scoreless seventh to pick up the save.
Carson pushed across a run in the first against starter/loser Drew Clark.
Connor Pradere walked, but was forced at second by Cody Azevedo, who promptly stole second base. After the dangerous Kyle Krebs was retired on a flyball to right, John Holton slammed a run-scoring single to right-centerfield, the first of his three hits on the day. Moyle followed with a single and Abel Carter walked to load the bases. Clark fanned Jace Keema on a high fastball to end the uprising.
The first inning was a precursor of things to come. Carson would leave 10 runners, including the bases loaded twice.
“That is a huge concern,” Manoukian said. “In a three-run ballgame that (the lead) is nothing. That isn’t an insurmountable lead. We have to score runs in the first four innings in case we have a big inning (against us).
“John did a great job today. He’s been working really hard in practice on staying through the ball and hitting less flyballs.”
The Senators stretched their lead to 3-0 in the fourth when Krebs walked with the bases loaded and Holton was plunked with a pitch with the bases loaded.
McQueen scored its only run of the game when catcher Brendan Yawn led off with a double.
He moved to second on a wild pitch and scored when Krebs threw wildly on a back-pick attempt at second.
The Lancers threatened in the sixth with two outs when Austin Thomas reached on an error by Carter.
Moyle retired Dylan Thomas on a comebacker to end the inning.
Carson scored its final run in the seventh when Moyle reached on a fielder’s choice and scored on three wild pitches by McQueen reliever Joel Seth.
NOTES: Carson will play in the Bishop Gorman tournament next week, and its opening game will be against a Canadian team ... Keema extended his hitting streak to five games, while Krebs’ eight-game hit streak was snapped.