Fernley pitches 1-hit shutout over Fallon

Three days removed from lighting up the scoreboard against Truckee, the Greenwave baseball team faced a power outage on Tuesday.

Fallon’s Brenden Larsen and Fernley’s Brandon Hlade dueled for the opening three innings, with the Larsen yielding only one run before both bullpens took over as the Vaqueoroes escaped with a 1-0 win at the Edward Arciniega Athletic Complex.

“I don’t have any answers. The approach at the plate changed from Saturday,” Fallon coach Lester de Braga said. “We weren’t seeing the ball.”

Fallon (4-2) travels to Spring Creek today for the first game of the 3A series. Both teams meet in a doubleheader on Saturday. Fernley improved to 4-0 after sweeping Truckee two weeks ago and travels to Dayton this weekend for a three-game series. Fernley and Fallon will meet two more times, April 11 and 25, in Fallon.

After putting up 33 runs on 38 hits in two games against the Wolverines over the weekend, the Greenwave bats were silent.

De Braga said Fernley was going after the outside corner and Fallon would try to pull the ball instead of drive it to the opposite field.

“Our approach with the plate when you go outside of the plate is you can’t pull it. We’ll work on it for the next couple of days to prepare for Spring Creek,” de Braga added. “Everything we hit was right at them. It comes with the game itself. Baseball’s a humbling sport. You never know. You play day to day.”

Larsen, Brandon Rau and Alex Vest combined to three-hit the Vaqueros, giving up the lone run in the fourth inning, but Fernley’s pitching was one step ahead. Jay King and Zach Burns pitched in relief as Fernley allowed only one hit, a single to Alex Mendez.

“I was very proud of the way our three boys pitched,” de Braga said. “They did everything they could. (Rau and Vest) haven’t had a lot of time on the mound but they did a great job. It’s going to be a plus for us.”

In addition to Mendez’s hit, though, Fallon reached base six more times via walk and hit-by-pitch and had opportunities to either tie or take the lead. Fallon stranded seven runners.

In the sixth inning, Fallon had a runner on third with two outs and then put two on in the final frame with one out.

“We were not able to capitalize on it,” de Braga said. “We have to be able to support them when we get those pitching performances.”