One thing is clear, Carson High’s softball team has improved.
It was evident this past week when the Senators lost 3-1 to Reed and 6-2 to Spanish Springs in eight innings. Those teams have dominated the Northern Nevada 4A softball scene for the last eight to 10 years, and the young Senators stayed right with them.
Part of Carson’s success stems from the fact that the returning players are a year older, a year better and more mature.
Another reason is the influx of freshmen Kedre Luschar and Amaya Mendeguia, both of whom stepped immediately into the starting lineup.
The main thing that will stop Carson from being one of the top three teams in the league this year is the lack of pitching depth. Jailene Salciedo is a solid ace, but there is nobody proven behind her, and she can’t pitch every inning. Freshman Taylor Murphy is currently the No. 2 pitcher, and hopefully she will be a solid No. 2 next season.
And, looking ahead, Bella Kordonowy should be able to play next year if her injured knee heels. She suffered a knee injury during basketball season, forcing her to miss this season and her summer season.
I think Carson softball is on the way up.
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The first two days of the baseball season were great if you are a Giants fan. San Francisco shut out the Dodgers 1-0 both days, and Joe Panik won both games with solo homers. Nice to see the great pitching from Ty Blach, Johnny Cueto and the bullpen which was lights out on Friday.
It will be interesting to see if Hunter Strickland can dominate out of the bullpen. He throws hard, and just needs to be able to locate a second pitch to become a top-notch late-inning guy.
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I’m finishing this column 20 minutes prior to the tip-off of the Loyola of Chicago-Michigan Final Four game.
I can only imagine what the Nevada players are going through. It’s scary to think all the “what ifs?” surrounding the Wolf Pack.
What if the team didn’t go scoreless for eight minutes? What if Loyola didn’t hit 13 straight shots to start the second half. What if Nevada decided to foul and make the Ramblers win the game from the line? What if Loyola did not hit that big 3-point shot at the end of the game? What if Kendall Stephens doesn’t go 0-for-8 from the 3-point line?
One thing I know is that Nevada would have beaten Kansas State had it topped Loyola. I am 100 percent convinced of that. Kansas State wouldn’t have been able to keep up with Nevada at the offensive end of the floor.
I know at the pro level, players that come that close to a Super Bowl often won’t watch the game. I’m not sure what Nevada players did this weekend. As I’ve chronicled here before, this was a special Nevada team and very capable of being where Loyola of Chicago was.
Nevada played a tough schedule and faced six teams that made the NCAA Tournament — Radford, San Diego State, Davidson, Rhode Island, TCU and Texas Tech. USF, which upset Nevada in Las Vegas, made it all the way to the CBI Finals.