Krebs sharp in return to mound

Kyle Krebs hadn’t pitched since breaking a finger on his left hand in late March, but you wouldn’t know it by his performance Friday night.

The right-hander allowed just two runs and two hits over 5-plus innings in the Carson Blue Jays’ 7-3 victory over mistake-prone Truckee during second-day play of the Reno Knights Tournament at Ron McNutt Field.

The Blue Jays, 2-0, will play twice today. The first game is at 2 p.m. against Douglas and the nightcap is at 7:30 against Susanville.

“I thought Kyle threw a fantastic game,” Carson coach Bryan Manoukian said. “He hadn’t pitched in a while. He made good pitches when he needed to and had good defense behind him. He just got tired.”

“It was the first time I’d pitched since I broke my finger (March 21),” Krebs said. “I came back for the last two weeks of the JV season. I felt good. I wanted to throw first-pitch strikes. I’m not going to strike out people because I don’t throw that hard. My fastball was working good. My change and curve didn’t work well until the fourth.”

Krebs had been virtually unhittable through the first five innings, allowing just an infield single to losing pitcher Riley Guiragossian. Of the first 15 outs, 11 were on groundballs.

The Blue Jays had carved out a 4-0 lead, scoring three unearned runs in the first thanks to a wild pitch, an error on Terek Been’s grounder to first and Krebs’ infield out. Josiah Pongasi had a run-scoring single in the bottom of the fifth to make it 4-0 and give Krebs a little more breathing room.

It could have been more than 4-0 had it not been for a base running mistake by Jessie Lopez, who hit a one-out triple to right field, but then was thrown out at home when Connor Pradere grounded back to the box. Lopez got into a rundown, and the Truckee catcher threw the ball wildly past third. However, the Truckee shortstop fielded the ball and threw Lopez out at home.

“That was a tough play,” Manoukian said. “He was one step too far. That’s something you might get away with at the JV level, but not on the varsity level... It was an aggressive mistake, and hopefully he will learn from that. It was a mistake I can live with.”

Krebs was unable to get out of the sixth inning, however. He walked Colin Caruso and Jonny Spaich to start the inning, and then yielded a single to Jack Szelkey to load the bases. Cory Azevedo came on in relief.

Gavin Broad rolled into a force play, scoring Caruso. A double steal with runners at first and third, and a run-scoring single by Cam Hollabaugh cut the lead to 4-3 entering the last of the sixth.

Truckee literally gave the game away in the bottom of the sixth, making three errors.

With one out, Azevedo reached on an error by the third baseman and reached third on a single by Moyle. After Moyle stole second, pinch-hitter Brandon Allen hit an infield roller which scored Azevedo to make it 5-3. Lopez followed with a run-scoring hit to make it 6-3. Lopez stole second, went to third on the catcher’s wild throw and scored when the center fielder threw the ball out of play.

Azevedo breezed through the seventh to pick up the save.