RENO — Carson gave the Reno A’s plenty of free bases Tuesday night, and that led to its demise.
The Blue Jays’ pitching staff dished out nine walks and the defense made one costly two-out error.
The A’s cashed in on those free bases to the tune of five runs en route to a 9-3 victory at Bishop Manogue High School.
Carson, 1-1, opens play in the Reno Knights Memorial Day Tournament on Thursday at 5 p.m. at Damonte Ranch.
“We had some new guys in, and we made some key mistakes,” Carson coach Bryan Manoukian said. “Manogue (the A’s) is a very good team, and they absolutely made us pay.”
The damage started in the bottom of the second when Carson starter Justin Stevens walked four batters, two of whom scored. Paul Vossen drove in all three runs with a double to deep right field.
Reno put the game away with five in the fourth off Garritt Benavidez, who retired the first two batters he faced, but then walked the next two. Vossen singled home a run, and then a two-out error by second baseman Kenny Aydelott kept the inning alive.
Rylan Charles made the error hurt when he blasted a triple to right-centerfield, clearing the bases and giving the A’s a 7-0 lead. Jade Stotts came on and allowed a run-scoring hit to Anthony Lynch before getting out of the inning.
Offensively, Carson didn’t do itself any favors. In a stretch between the second and fourth innings, Carson hitters struck out seven consecutive times.
“We were taking too many pitches,” Manoukian said. “We were getting into too many 0-2 holes and that put us at the pitcher’s mercy.”
And, the Carson coach went on to stress that his young team needs to work on some mechanical things at the plate.
Carson finally got on the board in the sixth, scoring three times.
Delsin Roberts walked to open the inning, moved to second on a wild pitch, reached third on Vernon Painter’s infield out and scored on Bryce Baker’s infield single. A balk and wild pitch accounted for Carson’s other two runs in the inning, and Reno also made a key two-out error that kept the inning alive.
Charles, who was a thorn in Carson’s side the entire game, completed the scoring with a solo homer to right. Charles went 2-for-4 with four RBI.
Painter led Carson with two hits, while Buchan, Casey Martensen and Baker added one each.
