Jared Barnard played follow the leader on Saturday against league-leading Spanish Springs.
Less than 24 hours after Bryce Moyle allowed just six hits in a 1-0 loss to Spanish Springs, Barnard four-hit the Cougars to lead the Senators to an 8-0 win at Ron McNutt Field.
The split against the Cougars gave Carson a 4-2 record against Reno, Manogue and Spanish Springs. Carson is 8-4 in league play heading into Tuesday’s home game (6 p.m.) against North Valleys.
Barnard fanned four and hit two batters in his 73-pitch complete game effort, Only once did the Cougars get a runner to third base.
“My curveball and fastball were both working,” Barnard said. “I left my change-up up a few times and got away with it. After watching them yesterday, I wanted to keep the ball down and keep them off balance.”
“Jared threw an exceptional game,” Carson coach Bryan Manoukian said. “We needed that game coming off yesterday’s long, emotional game. We needed a good effort from Jared, and he gave it to us.”
And, Carson’s offense finally came through, collecting 12 hits, the most in a league game since an 11-hit effort at Reed.
“We put the ball in play today, played well in the field and got good pitching,” Manoukian said. “This was one of the few games this year where we did well in all three phases of the game.”
The top third of Carson’s line-up — Connor Pradere, Cody Azevedo and Kyle Krebs — enjoyed productive days. Pradere and Azevedo each went 3-for-4, and Krebs went 2-for-4. Azevedo snapped an 0-for-11 skid. His two-run single in the second gave Carson a 3-0 lead. All three runs were unearned after Connor Culp’s error to start the inning.
“I’ve been working on my hands,” Azevedo said. “I’ve been working on keeping my shoulder in. My top hand gets lazy, and I’ve been working on keeping my hand firm and punching through the ball and hit line drives.”
“Cody has worked hard in the last week on a minor adjustment,” Manoukian said. “He is using more top hand and driving the ball through left side. He has better plate coverage.”
The Senators made it 4-0 in the third when Jace Keema reached on an error, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Moyle’s groundball. The Cougars elected to play the infield back despite trailing in the game.
Spanish Springs threatened in the fourth after singles by Josh Prizina and Casey Miller singled. Barnard retired Joey Arterburn on a roller to second to end the threat.
Carson tacked on another run in the fourth when Jesse Lopez walked and scored on a two-out single by Krebs.
Singles by Moyle, Kyle Gagnon and Pradere accounted for two runs in the bottom of the fifth to make it 7-0.
The Cougars’ last threat came in the top of the sixth when Barnard hit both Prizina and Carson McCusker with one out. Miller rolled out to second to advance both runners, but Pradere threw out Arterburn on a nice defensive play to end the inning.
Nico Salm walked with the bases loaded to force across Carson’s final run.
