After Douglas High had given Reno its first league loss in two years last Saturday, there may have been a question about how the Huskies would rebound. With Chris Rickey on the mound there shouldn't have been.
The left-hander was dominant through six innings and Carson High continued to be plagued by inconsistent play as it has been all season as Reno defeated the Senators 12-1 on Thursday at Ron McNutt Field.
Carson fell into a third place tie with Wooster in the Sierra League as both teams are 7-3, with the Senators holding the tiebreaker. Reno is in first at 9-1 with Douglas in second at 8-2.
The way Rickey was pitching, it was unlikely that anyone could have beaten him. But the Senators could have made it a much more respectable game had they played a solid game themselves. While Carson played well at times, there were also breakdowns as the Senators committed five errors.
With the exception of the second inning, Jason Alcasas pitched well for Carson, allowing four earned runs through five innings before being lifted. But in the second, Reno scored three runs to take a 4-0 lead on the strength of just one hit as Alcasas hit two batters and walked two.
"We gave them three runs," Carson coach Ron McNutt said. "You don't have that, it's a different ball game at least through the first two innings.
"You can't take anything from Reno. They put the ball in play and did the things they had to."
Rickey allowed just two hits through six innings and struck out five. He had a perfect game going until there were two outs in the fifth inning when Logan Parsley hit a clean single to left to break up the perfect game. Up until then, Rickey had gone to a three-ball count only twice - to Eric Melendez in the first and to Cameron Leck in the fifth.
Carson and Alcasas were solid in the first after he gave up two straight singles to start the game, giving Reno runners at first and third with no outs. But Alcasas induced Steve Mays to hit into a double play in which the run scored and that's all the Huskies got in the first.
But Reno took control in the second when Alcasas struggled and scored an unearned run in the fourt to take a 5-0 lead. After Parsley singled in the fifth, Kevin Schlange walked and Parsley stole third, but Carson could score.
The Huskies scored four runs in the sixth to take a 9-0 lead, taking advantage of three Senator errors. Carson scored in the bottom of the sixth when Jeff Hurzel singled and Royal Good walked. Both runners moved up on a passed ball and Hurzel scored on a groundball by Melendez.
Reno added three runs in the seventh, with the last run coming on a dropped popup. Mike Handley singled for Carson's only other hit.
"Sometime we've got to eliminate stupid stuff," McNutt said. "You don't know what causes these things to happen to high school kids. I just can't figure this bunch out."
Contact Charles Whisnand at cwhisnand@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1214.
