Tough opening night for local all-star squads

It was a night two Carson City Little League all-stars would just as soon forget, but for different reasons.

The Carson 9-10 squad used a sixth-inning rally to send the game into extra innings, but yielded two runs in the top of the seventh en route to a 13-11 loss to Reno National at Governors Field. The 10-11 squad led 2-1 after one inning, but Truckee dominated the remainder of the contest and wound up with a 14-5 victory.

Both teams return to action on Friday. The 9-10 will play the loser of tonight’s Reno Continental-Sparks National game Friday at 5:30. The 10-11 squad plays either Sparks National or Washoe Friday at 8. Both teams face must-win situations, because a second loss means a team can’t win the championship.

From the outset, the Reno National-Carson game was a slugfest. There were only four half-innings where a run wasn’t scored. It wasn’t pretty baseball, as the teams combined for eight errors and 18 walks in the marathon contest which lasted nearly three hours.

The game was tied at 10 through four innings. Reno National went ahead 11-10 thanks to two walks, a passed ball and a single by Ryan DeRosa off Justin Nussbaumer. After threatening in the fifth, Carson tied the game in its last regulation at-bat when Nussbaumer walked with the bases loaded against Dominic Motter.

Eddie Tierney, who finished the fifth with a strikeout, started the sixth on the mound for Carson. He easily retired the first two hitters he faced. DeRosa reached on an error and then Zack Gancarek walked. Tyler Gurrieri relieved Tierney. Derek Riparbelli walked to load the bases, and then Ryan Forderhase walked to force home a run to make it 12-11. Gancarek scored on a wild pitch to give Reno an insurance run.

Tierney doubled to right to start the bottom of the seventh and moved to third on Kyle Navarro’s single. Brian Guthrie followed with a hard liner to short. The Reno shortstop backhanded the liner and doubled Navarro off first. Reliever Justin Ferguson notched the save by retiring Riley Navarro to end the game.

Reno took a quick 3-0 lead thanks to a two-run single by Forderhase and a passed ball. Carson came back with two thanks to a throwing error and run-scoring double by Tierney, who went 3-for-5 and drove in four runs.

Reno extended the lead to 7-2 with four in the second. Forderhase had sacrifice fly, while Ferguson and Riparbelli added run-scoring hits. Again Carson battled back, scoring four of its own to cut the lead to 7-6. Nussbaumer had a two-run single, Tierney drove in a run with a fielder’s choice and Navarro singled home a run.

Three walks and an error enabled Reno to score three in the fourth to make it 10-6, but the resilient Carson squad scored four time to tie it at 10. Tierney tripled home two runs and Gurrieri drove one home on an infield roller.

That set the stage for a wild sixth and seventh.

In the 10-11 game, Carson spotted Truckee a quick run thanks to an error and double by Spencer Edmondson. Carson came back with two in the bottom of the inning when Diego Lopez singled and scored on Vernon Painter’s double. Garrett Benavidez followed with a run-scoring single to give Carson its first and only lead of the game, 2-1.

After a scoreless second inning, Truckee scored 13 runs in its next three at-bats.

Carson answered with two in the third and one in the fifth which wasn’t nearly enough.

Painter and Benavidez drove in runs in the third, and Painter delivered a run-scoring double in the fifth which enabled Carson to avoid being 10-runned.

Lopez, Benavidez and Painter ended up with three hits apiece. Dylan Roide finished with two hits.