The Fallon baseball team opens the regional tournament this week with Dayton, which it swept earlier in the season.
Photo by Thomas Ranson.
A 12-game winning streak came to an end on Saturday for the Greenwave baseball team as it enters this week’s regional tournament in Winnemucca.
Fallon, which won the series over Spring Creek last weekend, picked up the No. 3 seed after finishing with 20 points. South Tahoe (26) and Fernley (22) each won the 3A West and East, respectively, to pick up the first-round bye. Fallon faces No. 6 Dayton on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. with the winner taking on No. 2 Fernley at 4:30 p.m. South Tahoe awaits the winner of Truckee-North Valleys.
The championship semifinals are Friday at 2 p.m. when the winner goes to the championship and state tournament. The consolation final, which will see the remaining team punch its ticket to state, is Saturday at 9 a.m. The 3A Northern Region championship follows at 11:30 a.m.
The state tournament is next week at Fernley High School.
Damein Towne’s pitching and Steven Moon’s hitting highlighted last weekend’s series-opening 17-0 win over Spring Creek in Elko County.
Moon was perfect at the plate, driving in six, which included a grand slam in the third inning. Towne pitched a complete game, allowing two hits in the shutout. He also struck out five.
Brady Alves also had a home run for Fallon, which had 18 hits on the day. Cooper Lee had four hits in four appearances.
In Saturday’s first game, Fallon clinched the series with an 11-2 win.
Moon drove in four runs on three hits, including one in a big fifth inning that saw hits by Isaiah Diaz, Tyler Austin and Towne. Fallon also stole 11 bases with James Kelsey leading the way with four swipes.
Austin pitched Fallon to the win, striking out 13 in six innings while Moon pitched the final inning.
A six-run second inning in the series finale put Fallon in a hole it couldn’t recover as Spring Creek won, 10-9.
Fallon tied the game in the fourth inning at seven before Spring Creek took the lead. Fallon, though, tied it again in the fifth inning before the Spartans homered to take the lead for good.
Moon, Towne, Diaz and Isaac Martinez each drove in runs during Fallon’s five-run third inning.
Alves RBI single scored Lee in the fourth inning and Towne’s single to score Austin tied the game at seven before a double-play ended the inning.
A fielder’s choice broke the tie in the bottom of the inning, but Rolland Grondin, who came in as a courtesy runner for Kelsey, stole second and third in the following inning. Grondin then scored on a catcher’s error to tie the game at eight.
After a Spring Creek homer to push the lead to 10-8, Fallon came back in the sixth when Diaz doubled in Austin.
Fallon had two runners on in the last inning after Lee and Alves singled with two outs. A strikeout ended the game.
Diaz started the game and was relieved in the second. Kelsey, Towne and Francisco Tapia each pitched in relief.
