WNC Baseball: Salt Lake Turns Back Late Wildcats Comeback Bid
Submitted by editor on Sat, 05/09/2015 - 3:26am
Just when it looked as if Western Nevada College was going to make a late-inning rally against Salt Lake on Friday night, reliever Jared White had other ideas.
White escaped a two base runner, no-out jam in the eighth inning unscathed to protect a 4-2 victory over the Wildcats of Carson City in a Region 18 Baseball Tournament elimination game in Henderson. The win ends the Wildcats' season and sends Salt Lake into the tournament title game against host College of Southern Nevada on Saturday.
Salt Lake proved to be a thorn in the Wildcats' over the latter half of the season. The Bruins defeated WNC seven straight times, including twice in the region tournament. The Wildcats, which finished with a 33-26 overall record, were attempting to qualify for the Western District Tournament for the fourth straight season.
In the pivotal eighth, Tim Lichty started the Wildcat inning with a walk. The rally really took shape when Kody Reynolds followed with a base hit to left-center field, sending Lichty to second base. A passed ball advanced each base runner 90 feet. But White didn't buckle, striking out Corey Pool and DJ Peters for the first and second outs of the inning and then getting David Modler to ground out to end the inning.
White retired the Wildcats in order in the ninth to preserve the win for starter Matt Hape. White allowed three hits in four scoreless innings of work and struck out five Wildcats.
WNC got on the scoreboard first when Reynolds homered off Hape with two outs in the first inning.
Salt Lake answered in the bottom of the inning. Zac Willis' groundout scored Skyler Mahoney with the tying run.
Josh Mill (0-2) made the start for the Wildcats - his fifth of the season - but obviously none bigger.
The Bruins threatened in each inning against Mill, who stranded two runners on base in the first and one in the second.
In the third inning, the Bruins capitalized on their base runners. Following a base hit and a walk, Chris Fougner stroked a run-scoring double to give Salt Lake its first lead, 2-1. Salt Lake expanded its lead to 3-1 on Trevor Peterson's RBI base hit.
With runners still on first and third bases, WNC coach D.J. Whittemore reached into his bullpen and found the inning stopper, Ty Fox. Fox fanned Caleb Summerhays and got Jayden Bearnson on a groundout to stem the rally.
An infielder error to start the fourth inning served as ominous sign for the Bruins.
Following the error that allowed Reynolds to reach first base, Pool and Peters provided singles to load the bases against Hape. Modler cut the Wildcats' deficit in half with a sacrifice fly to right field. But the Bruins prevented WNC from squaring the score, pulling off a double play, where Peters was tagged out by shortstop Austin Ovard, who then threw out Austin Andrews at first base.
With the momentum returning to its side, Salt Lake got the run back in the bottom of the inning. Mahoney doubled, went to third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch by Fox.
In the fifth, Fox stranded Fougner in scoring position after he reached third base with one out.
The Wildcats left Reynolds on second base and Pool on first in the sixth inning and stranded Bradley Lewis on second base in the seventh.
Cody Kerns relieved Fox with a runner on second base and two outs in the seventh. After issuing a walk, Kerns struck out Summerhays as the Wildcats remained within two runs.
Offensively, Reynolds was 2 for 3 with two runs scored and a RBI and Pool was 2 for 4.
