By DAVE BELCHER
Moapa Valley Progress
The Moapa Valley High School Varsity Baseball team didn’t get much of a break last week when it came to their spring break. The team travelled to Las Vegas early in the week to play in the Blazer bash which brought participants from California, Utah and Nevada to spend the week playing at various campuses in Vegas.
The tournament started for the Pirates on Monday, April 14 against Carson California where the Pirates beat Carson 10-6. Moapa Valley scored all ten runs in the bottom of the sixth inning.
“We were hitting the ball hard all game,” said Coach Gary Weiss. “It was just at them and they made the plays. Their Pitcher didn’t throw hard but had a good curve ball.”
Then the at’em ball found its way around Carson in the sixth inning as the hits started dropping. When the hits started dropping the Carson pitcher started throwing walks resulting in the Pirates scoring all ten runs. The team then held on in the top of the seventh for the win.
The Carson Colts a team who is 10-7 and 4-0 in the Marine league in California had started the game with three runs in the first inning and added three more in the third.
Carson had scored 80 runs for the season allowing 67 runs in 17 games played and came in with a nine game winning streak.
With a comfortable lead heading into the bottom of the sixth the Colts let their guard down as the ball, which could be fielded through the first six innings, started finding its way through the Colts defense. Add the walks and it turned out to be a big inning for the Pirates.
Lance Hilton doubled twice. Chaz Cornwall and Chad Jones had two hits each to lead the Pirates on offense.
With the win the Pirates advanced to a double header on Tuesday, April 15 against Jordan High School of Sandy, Utah and Centennial High School of Las Vegas.
In the Tuesday morning game against Jordan the Beat Diggers beat the Pirates 7-0. Moapa Valley could only muster up four hits as Jordan scored seven times on eight hits.
Jordan came into the game 14-3 overall with a 6-0 Region record and ranked number one in the state of Utah according to Maxpreps.
Jordan took an early 1-0 lead in the first. It stayed that way until the fourth inning when Jordan scored two more runs; then one in the fifth; and they finished with three in the sixth to get the win.
In the second game of the day the Pirates played Centennial and were pounded by the powerhouse team from Vegas; a team ranked third in Nevada and 200 in the nation. The Bulldogs are 11-5 overall and 1-0 in league play. The Pirates scored their first and only run in the second inning.
Moapa Valley had three hits in the game.
Centennial scored four in the bottom of the second then thirteen in the bottom of the fourth and won after five innings. The Bulldogs had 17 hits with Zachary Taylor getting the win.
In their final game of the week the Pirates played San Fernando, California and were routed 16-0.
Kannon Evans came away with two hits to lead the Pirates who are now 6-9 overall heading into the second half of the league season.
Moapa Valley is 3-3 in league play sitting in fourth place. The top four will advance to the playoffs next month.
