Scenic

North Idaho College cooled off the Western Nevada College Wildcats, sweeping three Scenic West Athletic Conference softball games on Friday in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Tori Almos blanked WNC on four hits while striking out 11 to earn the first-game victory, 6-0, snapping the Wildcats’ five-game winning streak. The Cardinals completed the sweep with 14-1 and 10-5 wins.

The teams elected to play three games on Friday with snow and extremely cold temperatures forecast for Coeur d’Alene on Saturday. A high temperature of 12 degrees is expected on Saturday.

The Western Nevada College baseball team came out on top in the Scenic West Athletic Conference’s round-robin competition over the last weekend.

Now WNC, which improved to 11-5 overall, will play Salt Lake, the only team to beat the Wildcats in Henderson, on Saturday and Sunday, March 1-2, at John L. Harvey Field. The conference-opening doubleheaders begin at noon both days, weather permitting.

You can listen to the live broadcasts of the games right here on CarsonNow.org at the link below:

http://www.carsonnow.org/play-play-chris-graham

One Hospodka presented enough of a challenge for Colorado Northwestern Community College pitchers to contain on Saturday, but two Hospodkas in the top half of the Western Nevada College lineup proved to be too much for the Spartans to handle.

Twin sisters Makenzie and Meghan Hospodka hit two-run homers as WNC completed a Scenic West Athletic Conference softball doubleheader sweep of CNCC with a come-from-behind 7-5 victory in Carson City.

After scoring 21 runs in their previous game, the Western Nevada College Wildcats ran into a pitcher on Friday that kept them off-balance.

Salt Lake Community College freshman right-hander Jason Jourdan checked the 14th-ranked Wildcats on two hits through seven innings en route to the Bruins’ 4-3 baseball victory in Henderson.

The Western Nevada College Wildcats softball team faced the Bruins of Salt Lake Community College, Friday, Feb. 14 for a home opening doubleheader at Edmonds Sports Complex, Carson City.

The Wildcats came into the series 0-4 in the Scenic West Athletic Conference after losses to College of Southern Nevada last week. They managed eight hits in the first game, but lost 5-14 in five innings. In the second game the Wildcats fought hard, but came up short despite 12 hits. They fell 5-7. Pitchers Lindsay Ashbaugh and Carlee Beck took the losses for WNC.

More contributors at the plate and the complete-game pitching of Carlee Beck produced a solid opening weekend for Western Nevada College softball team.

The Wildcats of Carson City split their first five games in Southern Nevada, beating Gulf Coast of Panama City, Fla., and Pima College of Tucson, Ariz., before settling for a 2-3 opening weekend.

The National Junior College Athletic Association has named Western Nevada College to its Top 20 preseason baseball poll.

WNC's Carson City team is ranked 14th in the poll, which was released on Monday. Earlier this year, the Wildcats were rated 16th by College Baseball Newspaper in its preseason poll.

CARSON CITY — One of Coach D.J. Whittemore’s main goals each season is to find a home at the next level for each of his Western Nevada College sophomore baseball players.

Whittemore scratched three names off his relocation list on Wednesday when pitcher Christian Stolo, outfielder Conor Harber and middle infielder Jack Hall signed NCAA Division I letters of intent during a ceremony attended by many of their teammates on the Carson City campus.

The reauthorization of the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act was introduced Thursday in the U.S. House of Representatives, following the Senate’s introduction of the bill in August.

The legislation, sponsored by Nevada Congressman Mark Amodei, co-sponsored by California Representative John Garamendi, and Nevada Representatives Joe Heck, Dina Titus, and Steven Horsford, would continue another 10 years of federal government investment in the Tahoe Environmental Improvement Program.

The season's first significant snowfall covered the Sierra Monday with nearly a foot of powder at Lake Tahoe area resorts and 3-5 inches at lake level.

Anticipation for additional snowfall along with summer investments pays winter dividends at Tahoe South this season. Millions of capital expenditures at the three area ski resorts this year will complement revitalization efforts throughout town to create new options on where to stay, play and dine during the 2013-14 season.

Elaine and I just returned from a three-day, two-night, fun-filled visit to the Sierra Nevada mountains, just west of Bishop, Calif. The purpose of our return visit to the mountains was to do like we had done in 2012 at this same time of the year:

Enjoy autumn’s change of season and get fit for the holidays with a 5K run and walk on Sunday, Nov. 3, at 3 p.m., in Carson City.

The Western Nevada College softball team is sponsoring the event to promote fitness and fun, and to raise funds for their upcoming 2014 season. Race headquarters is at El Charro Avitia Mexican restaurant, 4389 S. Carson St. in Carson City.

With the 2014 season a little more than five months away, the Western Nevada College baseball and softball teams will take advantage of the mild fall months ahead in Carson City to prepare their rosters for the spring season.

Baseball coach D.J. Whittemore’s fall scrimmage schedule includes eight home dates at John L. Harvey Field in Carson City.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency is marking this year’s Lake Tahoe Summit by highlighting the Environmental Improvement Program’s 15 years of achievement restoring and protecting Lake Tahoe’s fragile ecosystem.

Launched at the 1997 Presidential Forum at Lake Tahoe by then President Bill Clinton, and Vice President Al Gore, the Environmental Improvement Program (EIP) is a partnership of more than 50 federal, state, and local agencies, private interests, and the Washoe Tribe.

The 2013 Edible Pedal is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 15

A guest post by Jill Stockton

Nevada residents receive 25 percent off a round trip train fare on the historic V&T Railroad in August. The discount is good for adult, child and senior/veteran fares for the Sunday 10 a.m. steam engine departures. (Twenty-five percent discount with online ticket purchases by using the code: NEVADA).

Alternative energy and transportation come to Nevada's oldest settlement for the 7th Annual Green Living Festival on Saturday, September 21, 2013 from 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM. This free event features sustainable living workshops, exhibitors, food (made using alternative energy), networking, and hands-on activities for families, all on the The Nature Conservancy's 800 acre River Fork Ranch, minutes from historic Genoa and the scenic Genoa Trail System. Bikes are welcome! For more information or if you would like to be an exhibitor or vendor, visit www.greenlivingfest.org

Sigh, it’s that time of the year again.

This is my annual reminder that if you’re someone like me, summer’s sweltering heat is not much fun. I do not like summer months.

I am an outdoors person who dearly loves the cold, frost, ice and snow of winter, and I absolutely and totally wilt at this time of the year.

And, especially, right now, with our record-setting temps in triple digits.
I am miserable and grouchy during hot weather months.

To be honest, I dislike the weather anytime it gets past 80-85 degrees.

Here is a suggestion if you would like to take an mid-summer vacation at an out-of-the-way location, right here in the state of Nevada.


If you are interested, did you know that our very own White Pine County is home to one of the Nation's least visited and Nevada's only National Park: The 77,000 acre Great Basin National Park? 
If you've never been there, here is a whole bunch of useful information:

Welcome to Eagle Valley Golf Course!

Eagle Valley Golf Course is situated in the foothills of Carson City, Nevada and is just minutes away from scenic Lake Tahoe, Virginia City, Reno and the beautiful Carson Valley.

We offer two 18-hole courses to choose from:

Eagle Valley East features a user-friendly layout and is great for walking or riding.
Eagle Valley West is a desert links-style course that challenges the best of golfers.

Location

At Western Nevada College, student-athletes continue to maintain perspective about their No. 1 priority in college: an education. WNC’s softball and baseball teams were again among the National Junior College Athletic
Association All-Academic teams honored this week.

In addition, six Wildcats were recognized with individual NJCAA Academic Student-Athlete Awards. The Wildcats’ softball team collectively attained a 3.31 grade-point average, topping last year’s 3.18.

On track with summer vacation, the historic V&T Railroad now offers adventure-seeking children 12 and under the chance to climb aboard and ride a diesel train for free every Friday through summer.

The Beech Boys Formation Flyers, performing at the Carson City airport open house, took flight Friday on a practice run with CarsonNOW.org and cameraman Steve Mitchell of eMedia Studios. Experience raw flight footage and scenic Carson City and Washoe Lake vistas in formation! Sit in the copilot seat, view the action from the camera plane, and share the excitement with pilots Colin Aro, Christian Goetze, John Tate, Bruce Wold, and Wolfgang Polak in formation... fly'in the skies of Carson CIty.

The East Shore Express, a park and ride bus that runs from Incline Village to Sand Harbor, opens for a second season for Lake Tahoe visitors and locals.

Buses will operate Saturdays and Sundays beginning the weekends of June 15-16 and June 22-23 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Daily operations begin Saturday, June 29 through Sept. 2 with service from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and run every 20 minutes on weekends. Hours of operation on the Fourth of July are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

More than 1,100 selections went by in the 2013 Major League Baseball Draft before the Baltimore Orioles chose Western Nevada College freshman outfielder Conor Harber on Saturday.

It marked the ninth straight year that the Wildcats have had at least one player taken in the 40-round draft. The 2009 draft was the only other time that the Wildcats didn’t have multiple current or past players selected.

Harber, who could play another season at WNC, start a pro career in the minors or sign with a four-year school, was taken by the Orioles with the 1,149th pick in the 38th round.

Who will become Western Nevada College’s 28th baseball athlete to be drafted? The Wildcats figure to have several current players and a few more from the past who could be taken during the 2013 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft Thursday through Saturday.

The pipeline from Western Nevada College to NCAA Division I and other standout baseball programs around the country continues to flow with Wildcat talent.

WNC baseball coach D.J. Whittemore has announced that five players from his 2013 team made up primarily of freshmen have been inked by Division I schools, while two others have signed with NCAA Division II powerhouse Dixie State College. The five join nine players from last year’s team who signed with Division I teams and eight from the 2011 squad.

History fills every rivet, trestle, whistle blow and clatter of the tracks. On Memorial Day Weekend passengers can take a journey more than 150 years old and join the ghosts of miners, gamblers, persons of ill-repute and politicians on the Virginia & Truckee Railroad.

A 60-second radio spot sung by the Sierra Nevada Children's Choir will be used as part of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad 2013 advertising campaign.

There are few teams that can compete with one that allows just a single run in three tournament games. Western Nevada College pitchers completed a dominant Region 18 baseball tournament performance with a 6-0 championship victory against College of Southern Nevada on Saturday in Henderson.

“Our guys were ready to play,” said WNC coach D.J. Whittemore. “They earned it. They grinded it out all year, and they kept believing in one another and themselves.’

Wildcats’ right-hander Philip Belding tossed a four-hit gem to provide WNC with its third straight complete-game pitching effort.