RENO — Kyle Krebs was in a groove, and that was bad news for the Greater Nevada Badgers.
Krebs threw 4 2/3 innings of no-hit ball before settling for a 2-hitter in the Carson Blue Jays’ 11-1 mercy rule win Friday at the ninth annual High Sierra Baseball Classic at Bishop Manogue High School.
The game was called after 5 2/3 innings when John Holton singled home Bryce Moyle to get the 10-run cushion.
Unfortunately, Carson used all of its hits up in its first game. In the second game, Reno A’s left-hander Casey Trosclair threw a 1-hitter in a 10-0 win over Carson. The game was stopped after 4 1/2 innings.
Krebs struck out one and walked one. Only three balls left the infield.
“Yeah, I kinda knew I had a no-hitter,” Krebs said. “After the walk (in the third), I just tried to throw strikes and get ground balls. My fastball and curve ball were working great. My change and splitter weren’t as good. I was working (talking) with the coaches between innings about the breaking pitches.”
“Kyle threw well,” Carson coach Bryan Manoukian said. “He’s a ground ball pitcher, and we played good defense behind him.”
Krebs’ job was made a lot easier when his teammates scored five times in the bottom of the second.
Brandon Allen started the inning with a double and moved to third on Jace Keema’s single to right. With John Holton at the plate, Keema broke for second and easily beat the throw which allowed Allen to score. Holton followed with a run-scoring double to make it 2-0. Holton moved to third on Joe Birri’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Cody Azevedo’s double. Azevedo moved to third on a wild pitch and scored when the catcher threw wildly to third base. Connor Pradere singled and scored on Josiah Pongasi’s double to make it 5-0.
“That made things much easier,” Krebs said. “I could just throw strikes and pitch to contact.”
The Badgers’ Kyle Schultz broke up the no-hitter with a single between third and short. He was forced at second by Matt Ferreira.
Carson stretched its lead to 7-0 in the fourth when Pradere was hit by a pitch and scored ahead of Joe Nelson’s homer to left-centerfield.
The Badgers broke up the shutout in the sixth when Kody Kirby blooped a single to right and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Tony Ferreira.
Carson concluded the scoring with four in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Josiah Pongasi, a run-scoring single by Bryce Moyle, Allen’s ground ball and Holton’s single.
Pradere and Holton led the offense with two hits each.
The A’s scored in all five innings, as neither Moyle or Terek Been experienced a lot of success on the mound. Moyle was tagged for seven runs and five hits in two innings, while Been gave up three runs and six hits in three innings.
Reno scored three in the first, all scoring on a three-run homer by Jordan Hunt. A one-out error scored two of the four runs in the second and Connor Brewster had a run-scoring triple.
Pongasi had Carson’s only hit, a single in the third. That inning represented Carson’s best chance to score. The Blue Jays loaded the bases with one out, but Trosclair retired Moyle on strikes and Allen on a fly ball to center to end the threat. Trosclair retired the last eight batters of the game.
Carson, 6-10, returns to action today at 10 a.m. at Manogue.
