Carson baseball faces elimination

After posting 22 wins during the regular season, Carson High finds itself facing elimination in the Northern Division I baseball tournament.

The No. 2 Senators, despite outhitting No. 7 McQueen 12-8, dropped a 6-4 decision to the Lancers Tuesday afternoon at Ron McNutt Field in the opening round of the playoffs.

Carson won’t have time to feel sorry for itself. The Senators host Damonte Ranch, an 8-0 loser to Reno, today at 4 p.m. Carson swept the season series against Damonte Ranch, but the Senators also swept its series against McQueen.

The Lancers have become the giant killers of the postseason. A year ago, the Lancers were seeded eighth and knocked off No. 1 Damonte Ranch in the opening round.

Many would consider this a major upset, but it really wasn’t. Carson coach Bryan Manoukian continually pointed out this season any team was capable of beating any other team in the league, and unfortunately for the Senators, it came to fruition.

It was a game Carson had ample opportunity to win. The Senators left nine runners on base, were thwarted on a steal of home by Jesse Lopez and made two errors on the same play which cost them a run.

“They have won a lot of games recently,” said Manoukian of the Lancers who were 10-11 in the regular season. “We left too many runners in scoring position. We didn’t get enough clutch hits. Toward the end of the game we had some strikeouts when we needed to put the ball in play.

“You can’t make errors in postseason and expect to win. They had a couple of hard balls that got through on the right side. I thought Bryce pitched well enough to win the game.”

Moyle threw 5.2 innings before turning the ball over to Joe Nelson, who finished the sixth and threw a scoreless seventh. From the third through one out in the sixth, Moyle retired nine straight batters. He had two bad innings, and that was the difference. The Lancers had six of their eight hits in those two innings.

After Carson scored in the second on Lopez’s run-scoring single, the Lancers came back with two in the third.

Zach Bell, the No. 9 hitter, doubled to right and moved to third on Ty Hutton’s single. With Nelson Padilla at the plate, Bell broke for second. Catcher Kyle Krebs threw toward second. Jace Keema caught the ball between the mound and second, but appeared to have bobbled the ball, allowing Bell to storm home. The second run scored on an error by Connor Pradere.

The Senators tied it in the fourth, and again it was Lopez striking the big blow with a one-out double to right-centerfield. Lopez went to third on a wild pitch, but was later thrown out trying to steal home.

“Jesse all year long has come through in the clutch,” Manoukian said. “We had a play (steal) on. The pitcher changed his motion and didn’t use the high leg kick. That was my fault, I should have done something different.”

Carson did go ahead 3-2 in the fifth on Abel Carter’s two-out double, but the Senators couldn’t hold on.

After Moyle retired the first batter in the sixth, he allowed a walk, a double to Joel Seth and a hard two-out double to right to give the Lancers a 4-3 lead. After Jay Phillips walked and Bell struck out, Hutton hit a two-run single to left to make it 6-3.

Cody Azevedo reached base to start the seventh, but Krebs grounded into a controversial double play. Manoukian argued Scott came off the bag before doubling up Krebs. Terek Been kept the inning alive with a walk and scored on Keema’s double to deep left-center field. Carter followed with a single sending Keema to third, but John Holton was retired on a pop fly to end the game against reliever Drew Clark.

McQueen coach Spencer Downie praised the work of Austin Thomas.

“He was our Tuesday guy all year, so he didn’t pitch the first time against Carson because it was a Thursday and Saturday series. He’s been our No. 1, our go-to guy. He’s been on varsity since he was a freshman. He was getting the ball without question.”

“I saw him last year,” Manoukian said. “He did a good job. he gave up quite a few hits, but they didn’t make any mistakes defensively, and that was the difference.”