Carson High baseball drops playoff opener against Reno

RENO — Carson High’s road trip on Tuesday started with the scorebook being left behind, and it got much worse once the game started.

The Senators were no match for right-hander Brent Thomas and regular-season champion Reno in the opening round of the 4A regional playoffs Tuesday, falling 10-0 at Zunini Field.

The defeat has Carson facing elimination today at 4 p.m. at McQueen. The Lancers dropped a 9-6 decision to Galena in their opener. McQueen swept the season series, winning 17-10 and 12-2.

Carson managed only a first-inning single by Kahle Good and three baserunners overall against Thomas, who threw just 60 pitches. The Senators allowed nine stolen bases and made five errors. It was ugly from the outset.

“We told the team there was nothing the coaching staff could do,” Carson coach Bryan Manoukian said. “The kids have to make the decision to come out and play the way they are capable of playing, and when they do that they are capable of beating anybody.

“Reno is one of the most aggressive teams (stealing bases and taking extra bases), and we worked on that in practice. We didn’t do a good job holding them on; using the slide step. We didn’t make adjustments.”

It may not have mattered. The Huskies made very few mistakes in losing just one league game this year, and they did everything right on Tuesday.

“I’m proud of the team,” Reno coach Pete Savage said after the game. “They played with a lot of confidence.

“Brent had great command of all three of his pitches. He had a good breaking ball today.”

Thomas struggled briefly in the opening inning, falling behind two of the first three hitters. Good singled on a 2-0 pitch and Barnard popped out to end the inning, also on a 2-0 pitch. He allowed just two baserunners the rest of the way.

“I think he was amped up in the first inning, and we had an opportunity to get some momentum, and we didn’t take advantage of that,” Manoukian said. “He threw multiple pitches for strikes, and he threw strikes to both sides of the plate.”

“In batting practice, I was trying to locate all my pitches,” Thomas said. “I was trying to stay within myself and pound the strike zone.”

Reno struck for three runs in each of the first three innings, and star hitter Mickey Coyne played a hand in all three innings.

Garrett Damico walked with one out and stole second. Carson starter Ben Nelson was called for a balk by third-base umpire Ken Stern. That was actually a good thing because Coyne had hit the pitch out of the park.

In high school baseball, a balk call wipes out the pitch. Damico advanced to third and Coyne drove him in with an infield out.

Sawyer Jaksick reached on an error by Jared Barnard. Caden Hogan followed with a ball to right-centerfield, and Jaksick scored when Landon Truesdale bobbled the ball. An error on Abel Carter scored the third run.

A two-out error on Barnard allowed two more runs in the second. Coyne, who finished with six RBI, accounted for the other run with a sacrifice fly.

Damico’s infield single in the third made it 7-0, and Coyne chased Nelson with a two-run single to make it 9-0. Hayden Hudson struck out Jaksick to end the third and then pitched a scoreless fourth.

The game was stopped with no outs in the bottom of the fifth when Coyne lined a double to right-centerfield, scoring David Ruiz with the final run needed for the mercy rule win.