The Carson High baseball team tuned up for a key three-game series with Reno High by beating Lassen 13-11 in eight innings on Wednesday in Susanville, Calif.
Carson will travel to Reno High for a 3:30 p.m. game today and then will host a doubleheader at Ron McNutt Field, beginning at 3:30 p.m. Friday. The start time of the doubleheader has been changed from the originally scheduled time of 5 p.m. Reno and Carson are tied for third in the Sierra League at 9-3.
Against Lassen, Carson saved its pitching staff, bringing up two players from the junior varsity, Ed Lovelace and Rob Valerius. Lovelace started and went 4.1 innings while Valerius struck out three over 1.2 innings. Joe Skates picked up the win, allowing one run over the last two innings.
Carson will go with its same starting three of Mike Teixeira, Jack Jacquet and Kyle Mandoki against Reno, with Nick Smallman and Josh Caron the first two pitchers set to come out of the bullpen.
The Senators (21-7) banged out 18 hits against Lassen. "I'm real happy with the way we played," Carson coach Steve Cook said. "We were hitting and running and putting the ball in play. They're not a bad ball club."
Carson led 11-10 going into the bottom of the seventh inning when Lassen scored to force extra innings. In the eighth, Jeremiah Teeter doubled, Kevin Schlange followed with an RBI single and Murph Gardner hit an RBI double.
The Senators jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first after the first two batters were retired. Parsley singled, Gardner hit an RBI double, Adam Anderson walked and then Joe Skates hit what Cook described as a "towering blast" to right field for a three-run home run.
Carson scored twice in the second as Derek Shoaf and Teeter singled and Schlange and Parsley each had RBI singles. The Senators scored two more runs in the fourth when Schlange had an RBI single and eventually scored on a fielder's choice.
In the sixth Carson scored three runs as Gardner singled and Anderson and T.J. Hein walked. Shoaf followed with a two-run single and Teeter had an RBI single.
Schlange was 4-for-6 with a three runs and three RBI, Gardner ws 4-for-5 with two runs, two doubles and three RBI, Teeter was 3-for-3 with three runs and an RBI and Shoaf and Skates each had two hits.
