It's safe to say that going into his senior year, Carson High's Tim Priess never dreamed about pitching against Hug.
"These games are ones we know we should win," Priess said. "I can't wait to go out there and play against Durango and Green Valley and Reno."
Those games will come next week. On Thursday, it was the Hawks. But it's not like the Senators were going to win simply by showing up. They at least had to put on their uniforms.
Priess pitched a two-hitter and struck out 10 and five Carson players had multiple RBIs as it beat Hug 16-1 in five innings on a cold and windy afternoon at Ron McNutt Field. In their last four games, the Hawks have been outscored 76-2 and fell to 1-9 in the Sierra League and 2-16 overall with yesterday's loss. On Saturday, the two teams play a doubleheader in Reno.
"It's tough to talk about a game like this, but sometimes these games come along and you gotta' play them," said Carson coach Ron McNutt. "These kind of games allow everybody to play. I moved up three kids from the JV team and they all got to play, so that's good."
Mike Handley, Eric Melendez, and Tony Texeira all appeared in their first ever varsity game. In the fourth inning, Melendez scored from third on a wild pitch that made it 14-1. Melendez pinch ran for Willie Bowman, who doubled but left the game after getting injured on the play.
The Hawks' only run came in the top of the fourth after Ricky Lyday's solo home run that sailed over the center field wall. That was the only negative surrounding Priess' outing. But Priess said after the game that the poor weather didn't have any effect on him.
"It wasn't that bad (the weather)," said Priess, who improved to 6-1 overall and 4-0 in league. "I was just trying to throw strikes out there. But it kind of got tough because the third and fourth innings were such long innings."
Probably not as long as the first inning of Hug's game with Reno on Saturday when the Huskies scored 11 runs in the first en route to a 19-0 win. But, long nonetheless.
The Senators (19-7 overall, 9-4 league) needed only two innings to get all of their runs. They scored seven runs in the third and nine more in the fourth. Nine different players hit in the game, including Ben Moore and Owen Brolsma, who both had three RBIs in the game. Neil Holmes hit a pinch-hit a grand slam home run, his first ever at Carson, in the fourth inning to put the Senators up 13-1.
"I've been starting all year but coming off the bench I just wanted to go up there and put the ball in play," said Holmes, who has hit three homers this season.
Steve Hartman also got his first hit of the season when his two-run single in the third made it 6-0. Jon Teeter went 2-for-2 with two RBIs.
McNutt expects another offensive outburst when the two teams meet again on Saturday. He also expects to leave Reno 11-4 in league play before traveling to Las Vegas the following weekend for two games against Durango and defending state champion Green Valley. The Senators end their season with a crucial three-game series against Reno, which will determine where they will be seeded at the Northern 4A Regional Tournament. The Huskies are currently in first place at 9-0 going into its three-game series with Wooster this weekend.
"We knew we needed to win all three (against Hug), but it's tough to keep them motivated and their spirits high in games like this," McNutt said. "I was happy to see Neil get that home run. We have to win both this weekend and we should do that. And Reno still has to play Wooster, Douglas and us. So I think it's still fairly wide open but it's still going to come down to the zone tournament."
