Cooper Eaton pops up a blooper that was caught by the third baseman Saturday afternoon during a 9-10 All-Star game against Carson Valley.
If you’re a Carson City Little League fan, the day was as dark as the sky on Saturday.
The Carson 10-year-old all-stars fell from the ranks of the District 1 unbeatens, losing 11-1 to Carson Valley, and the Carson 12-year-olds fell from championship contention with a 9-8 loss to South Tahoe.
The Carson 12s are now in the consolation bracket, and can finish no better than third. The 10s, however, are still in the running for a title. The 10s play tonight at 7:30.
Carson ran into two solid Carson Valley pitchers in the 10-year-old game, as Sean Powers and Jason Hernandez limited Carson to just two hits in the run-rule win.
Powers worked the first two, throwing just 23 pitches and allowing no hits. Hernandez, a big left-hander, worked the final three and allowed both Carson hits.
“We got great pitching tonight,” said CV coach Andrew Powers. “Sean and Jason shut it (Carson’s offense) down tonight for us .
“We played a lot of small ball and got some big hits.”
Carson manager Terry George wasn’t surprised by Carson Valley’s hitting.
“I knew they could hit,” George said. “We weren’t aggressive out there. We didn’t show up (ready to play) again.”
After Gabe Natividad gave Carson Valley a 1-0 lead in the first with an infield single, the eventual winners scored four in the second and four in the third to take a 9-0 lead before lightning and thunder forced tournament officials to pull the teams off the field.
Sean Powers keyed the second-inning uprising with a two-run single and Hernandez delivered a two-run double in the third which made it 9-0.
Carson City broke up the no-hit bid in the fourth with two outs on a bloop single by Anthony Planeta.
Carson finally broke through for its lone run in the fifth on a walk, a single by Decarlo Quintana and a wild pitch. CV won it in the bottom of the fifth on singles by Riley Duran, Braden Melandow and Hernandez.
In the 12-year-old game, defense once again was Carson’s nemesis.
The locals made six errors, two in the first which led to two unearned runs, and four more in the sixth which led to three more unearned runs. All told, Carson has made 16 errors in three tournament games.
On Friday, Carson gave up eight sixth-inning runs to lose 14-10 to Reno National. On Saturday, South Tahoe rallied for six runs in the sixth.
Carson led 5-3 after two in the first and one each in the second, third and fifth innings.
An error started the sixth, and after Tyler Gurrieri struck out Jacob Dennis, Ty Loughlin walked. Cameron Lehmann followed with a double to score a run and send Loughlin to third. Andrew Lehmann followed with a single to score his brother. On Andrew Lehmann’s hit, the ball got by the Carson outfielder for an error, and then the relay throw was misplayed by the third baseman. Two runs scored on the play to give South Tahoe a 6-5 lead. Yet another error made it 7-5, and Eric Vasser homered off Gurrieri to make it 9-5.
Kyle Navarro came on to retire two straight batters to end the inning.
Carson City threatened in the bottom of the sixth, getting the winning run to the plate.
Vasser robbed Riley Navarro of a hit to start the bottom of the sixth. Damian Branco grounded to short and reached second on a bad throw. He went to third on a passed ball and scored when the Tahoe catcher threw the ball into left field which made it 9-6. Gurrieri struck out, but Kobe Morgan kept the rally alive by walking.
Deven Sukha came on in relief and faced Eddie Tierney with first base open. South Tahoe elected to pitch to him. Big mistake. Tierney launched a two-run homer to make it 9-8. Brian Guthrie followed with an infield single and reached second when the shortstop threw the ball away. Sukha fanned Kyle Navarro to end the game, and Carson’s championship dreams.
Carson, with Morgan on the mound, yielded two unearned runs in the first on dropped fly balls in the outfield. Carson evened the score in the bottom of the inning on Morgan’s towering two-run homer.
Carson took a 3-2 lead in the second when Tyler Staglian doubled, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Branco’s single. Carson made it 4-2 in the third when Kyle Navarro walked with two outs and eventually scored on an error.
After Andrew Lehmann’s homer made it 4-3 in the fifth, Carson scored again on a dropped fly ball, a walk, a fielder’s choice and a wild pitch to make it 5-3.
That set the stage for a sixth inning that was hard to stomach for the local team and its fans.
