By DAVE BELCHER
Moapa Valley Progress
3A Baseball / South
The southern region tournament has the first three games being hosted by the higher seeded teams. Then the survivors will meet at SECTA where the top teams will play in next week’s state tournament.
Game #1: Sunrise Mountain will travel to Moapa Valley. The Miners are the fourth seed in the Sunset; while the Pirates are the top seed from the Sunrise. In March these two teams met one another in Moapa Valley. The Pirates beat the Miners at that time, 17-2.
Sunrise Mountain finished with a league record of 5-5. They were 5-16 overall. They have two players who are hitting above a .400 average: Brian Ruiz who is hitting .403 and Donovan Hansen hitting .417. Ruiz has 7 double and 3 triples to his credit while providing the team with 10 RBI’s. Hansen had 9 RBI’s with 4 doubles this year. Ruiz is the ace with a 4-2 record and a 3.74 ERA.
Moapa Valley has finished with a 9-1 league record and an 18-7 record overall. The Pirates are 9-2 against the teams who are playing in the tournament. They lost to Pahrump Valley and Boulder City once during the season. They beat Boulder City, Virgin Valley and Chaparral twice each and Sunrise Mountain, Desert Pines and Mojave each once.
Game #2: Chaparral will travel to Mojave. The Cowboys finished with a 5-5 league record and 19-9-1 overall. The Cowboys beat the Rattlers 8-5 in March in the Eldorado tournament. Talon Greene hits .393 with 14 RBI’s and 26 runs scored. Erick Villarreal hits .409 with 21 RBI’s and 15 runs scored.
Mojave is 8-2 in league play and 13-13-1 overall. They are led by freshman Mike Cianci with a .357 batting average and 8 RBI’s. Elijah Glaze bats .373 with 11 RBI’s. He has 4 double and 3 triple on the season.
Game #3: Virgin Valley will travel to Pahrump Valley. The Bulldogs are the fourth seed from the Sunrise with a league record of 4-6 and 13-13 overall. The Trojans are the top seed from the Sunset with a league record of 10-0 and 19-11-1 overall.
The Bulldogs and Trojans played twice this season splitting the two games. The first in Pahrump Valley was a 12-4 for the Bulldogs while the second game was an 8-0 shutout for the Trojans in the Cowboy classic at Chaparral.
Jayden Perkins leads the Bulldogs in hitting with a .516 batting average. He has driven home 14 RBI’s and hit 8 doubles. Layton Woods bats .381 with 16 RBI’s. Cade Anderson bats .351 with 13 RBI’s. Dillan Fuqua has a record of 5-3 with an ERA of 2.54 and 63 strikeouts.
Pahrump Valley is led by Parker Hart with a .451 batting average and 13 doubles on the season. He has driven across 21 RBI’s. Willie Lucas bats .378 with 23 RBI’s. Garrett Lucas hits .348 with 22 RBI’s. The Trojans don’t hit with power as they have just 1 homerun and 5 triples on the season.
Game #4: Boulder City, the second seed and defending state champion who is 8-2 in league play and 15-14 overall, will host the third seed from the Sunset Desert Pines who is 5-5 in league play and 9-17-1 overall.
Boulder City beat Desert Pines 6-5 in March in their only meeting of the season.
3A Baseball / North
The northern baseball tournament will be held at South Tahoe Middle school. This is a six-team tournament with Spring Creek earning the top seed and Dayton earning the second seed. Elko the third seed will play sixth seeded South Tahoe while Fallon the fourth seed will play fifth seeded Fernley.
Spring Creek is the number one team in the state followed by Dayton, Elko. Moapa Valley is ranked fourth in the state.
3A Softball / South
The southern softball playoffs begin this week. The top four from each side of the region will cross bracket with the first and fourth seeds playing and the second and third seeds facing each other. This is a double elimination tournament as the higher seeded team host the first three games until the tournament moves to SECTA for the final two days of the tournament.
Game #1: Western, who finished fourth in the Sunset will travel to Boulder City the top seed in the Sunrise. Western finished with a 4-6 league record and were 6-11 overall. In March these two teams met in Boulder City with the Eagles pitching an 11-0 shutout over the Warriors.
Boulder City finished the regular season with a 9-1 league record and 21-7 overall. The Eagles are led by pitcher Bailey Bennett-Jordan who has 15 wins and 7 losses. She has pitched in 127 innings, striking out 211 batters and walking just 10 all year.
Ryann Reese leads the Eagles at the plate with a batting average of .477 and scoring 37 times on 42 hits in 88 at bats. She leads the team with 16 stolen bases and has been walked 13 times also leading the team. Marleena Mills leads the team in RBI’s with 45 of them. Bennett-Jordan has 41 RBI’s.
Game #2: The Sunset’s second seed Mojave hosts SECTA, the third seed from the Sunrise. On March 28, these two teams met at Mojave where SECTA shut the Rattlers out 10-0.
SECTA finished with a 5-5 record in league play and 10-6 overall.
The Roadrunners are led by Melissa Fuller at the plate with a batting average of .471.
Mojave finished with a 7-3 league record and is 13-7 overall.
Game #3: Pahrump Valley hosts Chaparral. In March these two teams met in Pahrump where the Trojans beat the Cowboys 8-3. Losi Brown leads the Cowboys with a batting average of .571, 7 doubles, 5 triples and 4 homeruns. She has a 10-7 record pitching with 105 strike outs and 61 walks.
Pahrump Valley finished with a 10-0 league record and 25-9 overall record.
Game #4: Moapa Valley hosts Cheyenne. Cheyenne has finished with a 6-3 league record and 9-6 overall record. The Pirates has finished with a 10-2 league record and 16-10 overall. Earlier this season the Pirates beat Cheyenne 3-1 at Moapa Valley.
Moapa Valley is led by Lainey Cornwall and her batting average of .371. She has 20 RBI’s this year. Kessa Evans is hitting .365 with 22 RBI’s with 17 doubles and 3 triples. She has hit 1 homerun this year and scored 32 times.
Kaitlyn Anderson has hit for a .341 average as a freshman scoring 28 times with 20 RBI’s, 6 doubles, 2 triples and a homerun. Sierra Staheli is hitting .297 with 27 hits, 21 RBI’s and scoring 30 times.
Against the rest of the field in the tournament, the Pirates are 6-4 in the ten games they have played. The Pirates have lost twice to Boulder City, once to Mojave and Pahrump Valley. They have beaten SECTA twice and Chaparral twice. They have beaten Cheyenne and Western each once.
With a Pirate win on Tuesday they would travel to Pahrump Valley for a game Wednesday, that is if Pahrump Valley wins their first-round game against Chaparral.
3A Softball / North
Northern 3A regional softball tournament is being held at South Tahoe high school. Fallon is the #1 seed while Lowry is the second seed. Fernley the third seed will face Dayton the sixth seed while fourth seeded South Tahoe will play fifth seeded Elko.
Fallon has a perfect 24-0 league record and a 25-4 record overall. Fallon is the top ranked softball team in the state for the 3A.
Boulder City is the second ranked team while Lowry is ranked third and Pahrump Valley is the number four team in the state.
