By DAVE BELCHER
Moapa Valley Progress
The baseball/softball season has come to close. Last week, Fallon won both the state baseball and softball titles.
On the baseball side Fallon came into the tournament as the northern champion. In the first round game the Green Wave easily beat the south’s second seed Boulder Cit, 8-2.
Faith Lutheran, the south’s top seed; having won the last two state championships; played Elko in their first round game. The Crusaders beat the Indians 8-5.
Elko and Boulder City then played in the first elimination game. That one turned out to be a doozy as Elko came from behind with a two-run, seventh inning, walk off homer to send the Eagles home 7-6.
In the winners bracket Fallon upset Faith Lutheran 4-3 sending the Crusaders down to play Elko in the second elimination game.
That was no problem for the Crusaders. Faith Lutheran blasted Elko 12-5.
It sent Elko home with a sports year that had begun with so much hope and promise for the Indians, but just didn’t work out. Elko lost to Moapa Valley in the state football semi-final, then were beaten by Desert Pines in the state basketball semi-final.
Back to baseball: the Crusaders then moved into the championship round needing to beat Fallon twice to win the title. In the first game Faith destroyed the Green Wave 16-0 in five innings, setting up the “if game” for the title. But Fallon held on to win the final game for the championship with an 11-8 victory.
In softball, Fernley was the favorite. But they ran into the Green Wave of Fallon and were beaten.
Faith Lutheran was the top seed from the south and was destroyed, 21-8, by Fallon the second seed from the north in the first round game.
Sierra Vista was the second seed from the south and was beaten by Fernley the top seed from the north, 7-3.
Faith Lutheran then beat Sierra Vista in the first illumination game 5-1.
Back in the winner’s bracket Fernley was then upset by Fallon, 7-3.
Fernley then dropped into the loser’s bracket and played Faith Lutheran in the second elimination game. There they beat the Crusaders, 10-2, forcing an all-north final.
Fernley would need to beat Fallon twice to win the title. Fernley won the first game 10-3 causing a second game.
But Fallon beat Fernley 7-5 in the if-game. Fallon won the title for the second year in a row.
The frustrating thing about these two tournaments was that they were not played at the same venues. Baseball was played at Las Vegas and Durango while the softball tournament was played at Bishop Gorman and UNLV. So Fallon had to celebrate their two hard-won titles in different parts of the city and that’s just ridiculous.
