For the first time in three years, Carson is making an appearance in the state tournament. Coach Ron McNutt, though, just hopes his team sticks around a little longer this time.
"I think the kids are excited," said McNutt, whose 2000 team won only one game at state. "It's a very special time for them. Not a lot teams get to go to state. We're just going to go down there and try and what do what we can."
The Senators (26-9) play Green Valley in the first round of the NIAA/U.S. Bank 4A State Tournament today at noon at the Community College of Southern Nevada's Lied Field. The Gators (24-8) won the Sunrise Region championship with a 9-4 win over Silverado, which marked the third time this season they've beaten the Skyhawks.
Green Valley has won seven of the past nine large school state championships, including six consecutive titles from 1993-98. Carson, which has won three state titles in its history, won the 1992 state title. The Senators had qualified for nine straight state appearances before the 1999 season and have missed qualifying for state three of the past four years. But one thing McNutt remembers during his impressive run in the 90s was almost always facing the Gators.
"We've played them a lot in the past," McNutt said of the defending state champs. "Last year we went down there and we beat Green Valley and lost to Durango. (But) that doesn't really mean anything because those were non-conference games. Coaches use a lot of players they might not normally use. It definitely wasn't a state tournament game.
"They got both hitting and pitching. We know that you can't win a division down in the south without being a pretty good team. The kids are ready, though."
Galena plays Centennial today at 9 a.m. at CCSN and Reno, the Northern 4A champion, opens state at 9 a.m. against Palo Verde at Burkholder Field. Gorman plays Silverado at noon in the other first-round game at Burkholder Field. The Huskies, who have won 33 straight games, came-from-behind to beat the Senators in the zone title game on Saturday.
"We think we could have won that game, other people think we were lucky to play that good," McNutt said. "But it was by no accident we played that well. It shows the kids can put the regular season behind them. We lost three games to Reno at the end of the season. Then in zone we beat a good Reed team, won two games against a Galena team that won their league and almost beat Reno."
The three Northern 4A teams, even Reno, will need to neutralize the high-scoring teams from the south. Green Valley scored at least 9 runs in its four Sunrise Regional Tournament victories and Silverado scored 21 in its first postseason game. In the Sunset Regional Tournament, which Centennial won with a 12-2 win over Gorman, the scores were just as high. Palo Verde won games 15-14 and 18-6 and Centennial never scored below 10 runs in any of its four games.
"You have to look at why the scores are like that," McNutt said. "Maybe they weren't going against good pitching or maybe they have really good hitting down there. I guess we'll have to find out. You just never know. You never know how high school kids are going to come out and play on any given day."
