By DAVE BELCHER
Moapa Valley Progress
Last week The Moapa Valley High School baseball team played two crucial games, as far as league standing are concerned, last week. The Pirates hosted the Del Sol Dragons on Tuesday, March 24 and then travelled to Las Vegas to go up against Chaparral on Thursday.
Wins in both games would keep the Pirates in first place with undefeated Boulder City. But Moapa finished 1-1 with a home win against Del Sol and a tough one-run loss to Chaparral.
Moapa Valley scored 2 runs in the first inning against Del Sol. The Dragons scored a run in the top of the third inning closing the lead to one run. The Pirates held on and the score remained unchanged until the fifth inning.
Then the Pirates would increase their lead to 4-1 with 2 more runs in the bottom half of the fifth.
It was in the top of the sixth that Del Sol would come alive and score 3 runs, 2 of them earned, to tie the game at 4-4. Koby Frei had pitched a great game before the Dragons got to him in the sixth.
In the bottom half of the sixth, with the bottom of the lineup ninth hitter in the lineup for the Pirates, T.C. Twelker received a one-out walk. Twelker, who a manages to find a way to get one base most of the time, had found it yet again. Twelker took second on a fielder’s choice ground ball then advanced to third on a balk.
Bo Redd then stepped in the batter’s box and singled driving home Twelker with what would be the game winning run. Riley Longman came in for Frei in the top of the seventh and struck his only three batters out to get the win in relief. Chaz Cornwall had a 2-run double, one of two hits for Cornwall in the game.
Moapa Valley had a total of 8 hits in the game the same as Del Sol. Cordell Bowie and Christian Wallace each had two hits for the Dragons including a hit apiece in the three run sixth.
On Thursday the Pirates travelled to Chaparral to meet the second place Cowboys. The Cowboys had one loss on the season while the Pirates were undefeated in league play. The Cowboys squeaked out a 2-1 win in a game the Pirates should have won.
The Pirates took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning when Talan McClure doubled in Chaz Cornwall who had two hits in the game for the Pirates only run.
Chaparral would tie the game in the bottom of the third when Mark O’Connor doubled in an RBI.
The Cowboys would then go on to win the game when Antonio Vara scored from second with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning on an error on the Pirate shortstop Bo Redd.
With the loss the Pirates have dropped into third place and are tied with Chaparral and Del Sol with a record of 4-1 headed into spring break. There are no games scheduled for spring break this week.
