Cardinals beat Douglas in tourney opener

Thanks to Jack Jacquet, the Carson Cardinals baseball team gained a measure of revenge in its opener of the Joe DiMaggio Tournament.

Carson beat the Douglas Tigers and their ace pitcher Chris Balcom on Wednesday 4-0. Jacquet pitched a complete game two-hit shutout, striking out eight and walking four.

"He pretty much was the story of the game," Carson coach Steve Cook said. "He controlled the tempo. He kepte his pitch count down. He had a good day. He pitched lights out."

Last week at Ron McNutt Field, Balcom shut down the Cardinals and was the winning pitcher in a 4-2 win for the Tigers. But this time, the Cardinals jumped on Balcom for all four of their runs in the first inning.

Brooks Greenlee walked went to second on a wild pitch and advanced to third on Jeremiah Teeter's sacrifice bunt. Greenlee went on to score on a groundout.

Jeff Young followed with a double, David Leid then had an RBI single, Bryt Lewis singled and Nick Smallman finished the rally with an RBI single to make it 4-0.

But Balcom settled down after the first, going on to pitch three scoreless innings. He and Ryan Pruitt, who finished up, combined to shut down Carson the rest of the way.

Cook noted that the only hard hit ball to the outfield in the first was Young's double. "It was a good win, especially getting Balcom," Cook said. "He beat us last week. It was a good way to start off the tournament."

Kevin Schlange went 2-for-4 with an RBI, Leid was 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run, Lewis had two hits and Teeter added a hit for Carson. The Cardinals advanced in the winners bracket where they will play the Reno Muckdogs, a winner over the Sparks Bombers, at 12:30 p.m. today at Reed. The Sierra Sun Devils are also back to defend their tournament title.

The Cardinals aren't at full strength as T.J. Hein is out due to a previous commitment and pitcher Kyle Mandoki, starting infielder Logan Parsley and starting center fielder Royal Good are all out with arm injuries as a precaution. Good is available to hit, but Cook said Parsley and Mandoki will not play.