'It's always a good day for baseball'
Dave Price
Never mind the brisk February weather. It was the opening day and Ron McNutt - clad in his familiar blue jacket and sweat pants - was scurrying around the field conducting tryouts for the Carson High School varsity baseball team. Just as he has done for the last 29 years.
Is this a good day for baseball?
"It's always a good day for baseball," McNutt replied. "You know, I remember sitting in our (baseball) theory class and marking on the calendar that there were 60 days till tryouts, and here we are already."
The veteran coach, who has compiled a 635-251 record at Carson High, greeted 38 candidates shortly after the crack of dawn to begin the process of trying to determine a roster for the 2004 season, which starts in another two weeks. It was a long day, too.
"We started at 6 this morning at our warehouse with pitchers and catchers," McNutt said. "We went through a couple of rounds of hitting, and when we finished that, we did some drills and went through some situation stuff so we could have a scrimmage. We broke for lunch, then when we came back, we divided everyone into two squads, with eight pitchers on each squad. Hopefully, weather permitting, all the pitchers will get two innings of work."
That equates to a double header, coach!
"I hope so," McNutt said. "That way we get a good look at everyone."
The Senators will tune up for the regular season this coming Saturday when they host South Tahoe, Fernley and Tahoe-Truckee for a scrimmage. Carson will also be at home to scrimmage South Tahoe and Dayton on Monday, March 8, followed by the 13-team Carson Preseason Tournament on March 11-15. The Senators open their regular season a week later when they play a three-game Sierra League series against Hug.
The Northern 4A Regional Tournament will be played on May 12-15 in Reno and Carson City (the finals will be played at Carson's Ron McNutt Field) and the four-team 4A state tournament will be played May 21-22 at either Reno High or Carson. The only scenario that would prevent Carson from hosting would be if Carson qualifies for the state tournament and Reno does not.
Two teams from the North and two from the South will qualify for the double elimination state tournament.
There is good cause for optimism in camp because the Senators return several veterans, including first-team all-league pitcher Scott DeFriez and shortstop Willie Bowman, from a team that went 26-11 and qualified for the state tournament last year in Henderson.
"We've got about 14 kids back, so we have a lot of veterans," McNutt said. "We'll have to play well because I think there's going to be quite a few good teams in the league."
The Senators will need to contend with some quality just to make the playoffs from the Sierra League. Among the stiffest challenges will be the Reno Huskies, last year's regional champions and runner-up finishers at state.
"Reno had a great year last year and they have some quality kids back," McNutt said. "Down south, Douglas has quality pitching back and Johnny (Glover, coach) will do a good job. South Tahoe pretty much has their entire team back. At Wooster, Ron (Malcolm) will do a good job with the kids he has. Hug will have a team again (after not finishing the 2003 season). And you know Rob (Hastings) will come up with a good ball club at North Valleys."
There will be no counting out the High Desert League at playoff time, either.
"John Phenix has retired, but Reed has a pretty good ball club," McNutt said. "Fallon has a lot coming back, they'll definitely have depth at pitching. Galena will be strong, and Elko made it (to the playoffs) as a fourth seed last year and they have a lot of kids back."
