Carson High closes out its regular-season schedule with a three-game series starting today against arch-rival Douglas.
First pitch is at 3:30 p.m. at Tiger Field, and the teams will play a 10 a.m. doubleheader on Saturday at Ron McNutt Field.
Douglas, coming off a series sweep against Wooster, is currently 10-2. Carson is tied for third place with Wooster at 7-5. The Senators hold the tie-breaker over the Colts after winning two of three during their recent series.
Carson is in for a tough time, one made tougher when it was learned that the Senators will play the rest of the season without ace pitcher Scott DeFriesz and left fielder Jeff Hurzel, both of whom were suspended for the rest of the season after breaking team rules.
McNutt will throw Jason Alcasas (2-4, 5.53), Wes Osmer (2-2, 3.32) and Mike Handley (2-1, 5.47) against the Tigers, though he hadn't set a rotation. Douglas is expected to counter with Chris Honer (7-0, 2.98), Brandon Huff (2-1, 2.70) and Bryan Miller (5-2, two saves, 3.71).
The veteran coach isn't surprised at all with Douglas' success this year. Douglas is hitting well over .300 as a team, and has pop throughout the lineup. The Tigers were averaging 10.65 runs per game through their first 20 games.
"Douglas has an outstanding senior class," McNutt said. "There are a lot of kids that have played more than one sport. They had a tremendous football year. To this day they were the best team in the North and even in the state. They went into basketball and had a great year, and they had senior leadership in both sports.
"Their kids are making it happen on the field. They are really playing together as a team."
Shortstop Luke Rippee is hitting .452 with eight homers and 35 RBI from the leadoff slot. Second baseman Chad Walling leads the team with a .471 mark with four homers and 19 RBI. Miller (.376, 5 homers, 26 RBI), Huff (four homers, 29 RBI), third baseman Jimmy Pierce (.306, 12 RBI), outfielder Spike Agosta (.305, homer, eight RBI) and D.J. Brady (.314, homer, seven RBI) are all over .300. Honer is hitting .294 with two homers and 27 RBI.
Conversely, Carson has just three starters over .300 overall this season - shortstop Willie Bowman (.439), first baseman Cameron Leck (.372) and catcher Dave Nelsen (.308). Leck and Bowman have the most pop, and the Senators need guys like Royal Good and Eric Melendez to get on ahead of them.
Carson also needs sophomores Kevin Schlange (.208) and Logan Parsley (.242) to step up offensively this weekend and lend support to Bowman and Leck.
Contact Darrell Moody at dmoody@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1281.
