Carson baseball sweeps two games

The fifth inning proved to be huge for Carson High’s baseball team on Friday.

After dropping their season-opening game to Wooster, the Senators used big fifth innings to post wins over Central Catholic-Modesto and Fallon in the second day of the Mike Bearman Memorial Tournament at Ron McNutt Field.

Carson concludes the tournament today with a 2 p.m. game at home against South Tahoe and a 5 p.m. match-up against the Douglas Tigers, who are now under the leadership of Marc Walling.

In the opener against Central Catholic, the Senators snapped a 5-all tie with five runs in the bottom of the fifth en route to a 10-5 win.

In the nightcap, the Senators got key hits from Kyle Krebs, John Holton and Bryce Moyle, the latter a game-winner, to score four times in the bottom of the fifth and pull out a 9-8 victory. The latter game lasted just 4.1 innings because of the time limit.

“Yesterday was a weird day, and this group hasn’t had one of those in a long time,” CHS coach Bryan Manoukian said. “It was good to get back on the winning track tonight.”

The win over Fallon was one for the books. The Greenwave had taken an 8-5 lead in the top of the fifth with six runs against CHS relievers Cole McDannald and Derek Schafer. Jack Swisher had a big two-run double to highlight the rally.

The bottom of the fifth was going to be the last inning no matter what, and the Senator didn’t waste it.

Jared Barnard singled, moved to second on an infield out. Connor Pradere (5-for-8 in two games) walked. Cody Azevedo followed with a fielder’s choice, and all hands were safe when Pradere beat the force-out throw to second. Kyle Krebs followed with a two-run single to make it 8-7. McDannald was walked intentionally to set up a double play. Holton, fouling off several pitches, singled to center on the eighth pitch of the at-bat, tying the game at 8. Moyle, after drilling one just foul down the right field line, went opposite field and hit a single over the shortstop’s head to end the game.

“I was just trying to stay alive,” Holton said. “I just wanted to put the ball in play.”

“I was trying to get something in the air,” Moyle said. “With two strikes I was just trying to find a hole. The pitch (lined to right) was a fastball, and so was the one on the game-winner.”

Big, bit at-bats, according to Manoukian.

“I was especially happy for John,” Manoukian said. “He made the adjustment. He kept fouling off curveballs until he got he pitch he wanted. Our approach was so much better today.”

Carson grabbed a 5-2 lead against Central Catholic, as Pradere went 3-for-3 and scored three times from his leadoff spot. Moyle, who had trouble locating his off-speed pitches, gave up a solo homer to Noah Jones-Porter and a two-run double to Joe Mundt enabling CC to tie the game at 5.

The Senators stormed back in the bottom of the inning, sending 11 batters to the plate. Moyle, Krebs, Cody Azevedo, Pradere and Jesse Lopez all had run-scoring hits to make it a 10-5 game, and Krebs took care of the rest with two perfect innings of relief work.

Besides three hits from Pradere, Carson got two from Azevedo, Krebs, Kyle Gagnon and Lopez.

“Connor did a very good job as a lead-off hitter,” Manoukian said. “He had much more focus than yesterday at Wooster.

“Bryce did OK. He battled. He didn’t have good command of his off-speed pitches.”

Moyle went the first five, throwing 90 pitches, which was between 5 and 10 more than Manoukian wanted.

Dayton wins twice at Yerington

YERINGTON — Dayton tallied 24 runs in eight innings en route to two victories at the Yerington Tournament Friday afternoon.

The Dust Devils opened with a 9-1 win over Silver Stage in four innings, and then exploded for 11 first-inning runs in a 15-1 victory against Whittell. The Dust Devils play Yerington today at 8 a.m. and then battle Bishop at 9:45.

In the opener, the Dust Devils scored eight third-inning runs to break open a tight game. Mark Rainey allowed two hits to pick up the win.

Rainey had plenty of offensive help, as Justin Schmidt and Dylan Baker drove in two runs each, while Nick Hein, Gage Duke, Jacob Nelson and Zach Woitas drove in a run each.

Hein and Avery Nelson combined on a two-hitter in the nightcap.

Duke had three hits and three RBI, while Trevor Burrows, Nelson and Jesse Schmidt drove in two runs each.

Schmidt had three hits. Kacey Cram, Isaac Von Schoff, Hein, Nelson and Baker also drove in runs,

“It’s good to get a couple of wins under our belts,” DHS coach Mike Burrows said. “We’ve been stressing the importance of competing every day in practice, and even though it’s a preseason tourney, we did what we needed to do.”