In all likelihood, the five-hour drive from his home in the Bay Area to Carson City on Saturday didn't help Dustin Hahn in his summer baseball season debut with the Carson Capitols.
Not surprisingly, Hahn went hitless and struck out twice in four plate appearances in that first game. Game two was a different story, however, because Hahn hit 3-for-3 with a solo home run to trigger a five-run fourth inning rally that propelled the Capitols to an 8-3 victory against El Dorado American Legion Post 119.
Ken Heald pitched a complete game, allowed nine hits and walked none to pick up the win as the Caps completed a sweep of their season-opening doubleheader on a mild night at Carson High School's Ron McNutt Field.
Brian Cochran scattered six hits with only one walk and the Caps scored three runs in the fourth inning to post a 6-2 victory in game one.
"I thought we played pretty well considering we only had one good practice before today," said Ron McNutt, whose record as head coach of the Caps now stands 1,126-218 since 1978. "The kids have had some time off from high school until now; it's tough to put them together and try to be competitive."
Even though these players have come together from around Northern Nevada as well as the Sacramento and Bay Area, many are familiar with each other.
"We're a little incomplete right now because we're still missing some guys, but we're pretty much the same team as last year," said Hahn, now in his second season with the Caps. "We should have a pretty good team."
Hahn, who just completed his junior season at St. Francis High School (Mountain View, Calif.), doubled off the center field fence to tie the score 1-1 in the second inning. Then in the fourth, with the score tied at 3, Hahn drilled a leadoff home run off the scoreboard in center field to put the Caps on top to stay.
"The first game, I was pressing; I was trying to pull everything," Hahn said. "This game, I was just trying to hit it it hard up the middle."
Carson capped off its night with some sterling defense in the seventh. Catcher Rusty Miller picked a runner off second base for the second out and then after Mitch Rudnick hit a shot to the left field fence, the Caps' Jon Fender retrieved the ball and threw to shortstop Dustin Pedroia, who fired a strike to Miller at the plate for the game-ending out.
Miller hit 2-for-2, Pedroia 2-for-4 with an RBI triple in the second, and Fender had an RBI double in the second game.
Kyle Murray, an all-Sierra Valley Conference performer for El Dorado High School this spring, hit 3-for-4 and scored twice in the second game. Murray was also 2-for-2 in the opener.
The two teams conclude their weekend series with another doubleheader today, starting at noon at McNutt Field.
