Big first inning kills Carson

The Carson Blue Jays just can't stay away from big innings.

After giving up nine runs in two innings against the Reno Aces on Monday, Douglas scored six in the first to send the Blue Jays down to a 10-4 loss Tuesday night at Ron McNutt Field.

Carson, 2-9, returns to action Thursday at 5 p.m. in a doubleheader at Ron McNutt Field.

"Take away that first inning and it's a 4-4 game," Carson coach Bryan Manoukian said. "Douglas hit the ball extremely well and we didn't pitch very well the first couple of innings.

"We left a dozen guys on. It's really tough to win a game when you leave that many on. We had our opportunities. We didn't get hits when we needed to. I thought our relievers did a good job of holding them down."

Carson has yielded 19 runs in the last two games, and 15 of the 19 have come in three innings. After scoring six off Jace Zampirro in the first, Douglas scored one in the fourth, fifth, sixth and ninth innings.

Douglas sent 11 hitters to the plate in the first inning, as Dusty Fisher led off with a single and Teddy Mason walked. Both runners moved up on the second of Zampirro's wild pitches. Caleb Foster delivered a two-run single and Sullivan Cauley followed with a run-scoring single to make it 3-0.

After Cale Kynett walked and Kyle Johnson laid down a sacrifice bunt, Dillon Lopez drove in a run on a fielder's choice. After Zampirro plunked Jimmy King, Dustin Plant singled in a run. Fisher walked with the bases loaded to make it 6-0.

"Zampirro is as good a pitcher as there is around here," Douglas coach Alex Seghieri said. "He settled down after that first inning. Sometimes you hit line drives right at people and other times the ball finds a hole. Fortunately for us we found some holes."

"The big thing mechanically I found with Jace was his arm slot," Manoukian said. "He was too flat. He needed to be on top more. He'd get two strikes on a batter and give up a line drive."

Diminutive lefty Cole Peck retired the first five batters he faced. He walked two and hit another to load the base in the second, but retired Chazz Nystrom to get out of the jam.

He was wasn't so fortunate in the third, allowing a leadoff double to right-centerfield by Gehrig Tucker. TJ Thomsen walked and Zampirro drove in Tucker with a single. After Chase Blueberg forced a runner, Logan Krupp singled up the middle to score Thomsen and make it 6-2.

Sullivan Cauley delivered a run-scoring double in the fourth to make it 7-2 and King's run-scoring single in the top of the fifth made it 8-2. Carson made it 8-3 in the fifth when Krupp drove in his second run of the game. He went 3-for-4 with a walk.

Kynett made it 9-3 in the sixth with a run-scoring double off reliever Brandon Allen. Douglas added a run in the ninth to make it 10-3. Carson scored an unearned run in the ninth for the final run of the night.

Seghieri was pleased with the pitching of Cole and Dalton Grissell. They scattered nine hits and made good pitches when they needed to. Cole was pulled one out away from getting the win, going 4.2 innings.

"Cole did a great job in the regular season for us," Seghieri aid. "Grissell is an inning eater. They both did a nice job."

Cauley led Douglas with three hits, while Fisher added two.