It was a mixed bag for Carson City Little League teams on the opening night of the District 1 all-star tournament at Governors Field.
Carson's 9-10 year-old team scored two in each of the first two innings and rolled to a 9-3 win over South Tahoe.
In the 10-11 game, South Tahoe broke open a scoreless tie with eight third-inning runs en route to a 9-0 win over Carson.
Action continues tonight for the 9-10 team which takes on Reno Continental at 8 p.m. on Field 5. The 10-11 squad plays Friday a 8 on Field 2.
Coach Bob Stevens was happy with his team's play, especially the pitching of Vernon Painter, Dylan Roide, Tyler Stolfich and Diego Lopez who combined for a 3-hitter with 10 strikeouts.
"I'm happy overall," Stevens said. "With this age group you want to keep the ball under control which I thought we did except for one inning (the third). The last 4 or 5 days we've really tightened things up.
"We have good bats, and tonight we spread it around. That's how you win games. We have to have our 7, 8 and 9 hitters hitting the ball. As long as we're balanced we'll be tough."
Carson City had nine hits - two each by Jacob Pettay, Stolfich and Lopez. Painter, Roide and Zach Houghton had a hit apiece.
Carson took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first when Pettay singled and scored on a double by Stoflich, who came around to score on Painter's infield out.
After South Tahoe pushed across an unearned run in the first, Carson added two unearned runs in the second for a 4-1 lead.
Max Fontaine reached on an error and moved to third on a single by Lopez. Fontaine scored on an infield out by Justin Stevens, while Houghton delivered a run-scoring single.
South Tahoe pushed across another unearned run in the bottom of the second to slice the deficit to 4-2.
Houghton walked and came around to score on a passed ball. The locals had the bases loaded after that score with just one out, but Roide struck out and Fontaine rolled out.
Carson tacked on four more in the top of the sixth thanks to a single by Zander Smokey, a double by Stoflich, a walk to Painter, a double by Roide and two errors.
Tucker Cannon's sacrifice fly drove in Henry Vacakis, who had doubled, with South Tahoe's final run in the bottom of the sixth.
The 10-11 game was scoreless for the first 2 1/2 innings. but South Tahoe took control with its aforementioned eight-run inning.
"They played small ball, and we didn't do a good job of getting to the ball," coach Brett Clampitt said.
Zane Warkentin had three of Carson's six hits. Kahle Good, Blake Menzel and Garrett Clampitt added a hit each.
The closest Carson came to scoring was in the fourth when Good doubled to center, but was forced at second on Josh Buchan's one-hopper to centerfield. It was a bang-bang play. Warkentin followed with a liner to right field which appeared to have cleared the fence. However, the first-base umpire called it a ground-rule double. Buchan was sent back to third.
Teigen Key followed with a sharp grounder to the left side, and Buchan was thrown out at the plate for the second out. Garritt Benavides was caught looking at a third strike to end the inning with two runners on.
Clampitt thought the call on Warkentin's ball was critical.
"From a momentum standpoint it did (make a big difference)," Clampitt said. "That cost us a couple of runs and sapped the momentum out of us."
South Tahoe used three singles and an error to score their final run in the bottom of the fifth. Carson went out quietly in the sixth.
