Carson drops two in Bearman Invitational

It was a lost day for the Carson High baseball team.

The Senators, who split their first two games at the Mike Bearman Invitational on Friday, suffered two straight losses on Saturday at Ron McNutt Field, falling 10-5 to Elko and 6-2 to Douglas.

The loss dropped Carson to 2-3 heading into Tuesday's 4A opener at Wooster at 3:45 p.m.

In the loss to Douglas, the Senators came six outs away from being no-hit by lefty Cody Begovich, who sailed through five no-hit innings before surrendering a leadoff double to Chase Blueberg in the sixth. He finished with a four-hitter.

Trailing 6-0 entering the seventh, Nick Domitrovich hit a one-out single to right and moved to third on a double to deep left by Luke Maher. After Begovich fanned Charlie Banfield for his ninth strikeout of the game, Casey Wolfe lined a single to left-center field to score both runners to make it 6-2. Wolfe broke for second on the throw to home and was easily thrown out at second to end the game.

Begovich struck out seven of the first nine he faced, and five of his strikeouts were looking.

"I like him," Carson coach Cody Farnworth said. "I see him as a No. 1 guy. I don't know if we were having trouble picking up the ball or what. We have to hit the ball better if we're going to challenge in this league.

"It's just a matter of the kids doing what we ask them to do. Luke hit the ball well and Chase had a nice swing (to break up the no-hitter). We need to do a better job on some of the little things."

Except for a subpar third inning, Wolfe threw a good game for Carson.

The Tigers scored three in the top of the third when Cale Kynett doubled to right-center field and scored on a single by Begovich to take a 1-0 lead. Wolfe got the next two outs, but gave up a run-scoring double to Dillon Lopez and a run-scoring single to Kaleb Foster.

Douglas made it 4-0 in the fifth when Dusty Fisher doubled to right, stole third and scored when Rory Petersen's throw went into left field.

Drew Moreland came on in the sixth and gave up two runs in the seventh on doubles by Begovich and Leo Trebotich, a dropped third strike and a single by Foster.

In the opener against Elko, Carson tagged Cody Kerns for three first-inning runs, two coming on a triple by Domitrovich. Maher drove in the third run with a double off the fence in left.

The lead didn't last long, as Moreland was tagged for five runs and five hits in the top of the second.

Moreland was tagged for three second-inning runs despite striking out the side. Chad Schumacher drove in two of the runs with a single, while Zach Armstrong, Francisco Lievanos and Tommy Headley drove in a run a piece.

"He (Moreland) just got the ball up in (in the zone)," Farnworth said. "They hit the ball. They made adjustments at the plate and we didn't."

Philip Benevides came on in the second and pitched well the rest of the way, allowing only two runs and three hits over the final five innings. The game was stopped after six innings because of the time limit.

"He did a great job," Elko coach Shane Gilligan said. "We have some guys with sore arms and we're going to Boise next. He really stepped up."

Elko made it 7-3 in the fifth as Schumacher squeezed home a run and Carson reliever Gehrig Tucker uncorked a wild pitch.

A run-scoring triple by Domitrovich and a sacrifice fly by Charlie Banfield made it 7-5 after five, but the Indians tacked on three more in the sixth, two coming on a Justin Pete triple, to take a 10-5 lead.