Pirates advance past Boulder City, 5-2 in Regional second round

By MELISSA EVANS

The Progress

The Moapa Valley High School Baseball team beat Boulder City, 5-2, in round two of the NIAA Southern Regional tournament held in Boulder City on Tuesday night, May 10.

Starting pitcher Rylan Evans went 6 and a third innings allowing 2 runs on 5 hits, striking out 5.

The Pirates got off to a frustrating start in the top of the first inning. Evans’ two out single proved unproductive even after a walk by Tyson Pettingill moved him over to second and a wild pitch allowed him to advance to third. A fly out would ultimately leave him stranded.

Adding to the early intensity, an Eagles’ run in the bottom of the inning gave Boulder City an early lead of 1-0.

In the second, a one out single by Landon Wresinski was followed by a strikeout and a ground out leaving another scoreless inning for the Pirates.

When R. Evans walked on and Pettingill singled with 2 outs in the third, Moapa Valley tried a decoy play. Intentionally getting Pettingill into a pickle the Pirates attempted to get Evans home from third. This play was unsuccessful, ending the half inning with an out on the base path.

More bad luck seemed to follow for the Pirates into the bottom of the third, when 2 singles in a row scored another run for Boulder City, making it 2-0.

But the Pirates were able to answer the Eagles’ two singles with two of their own. In the top of the fifth, Gunnar Redd singled then went on to score on another single from R. Evans to cut the deficit in half.

Austin Heiselbetz was hit by a pitch to start the sixth. The detrimental error by Eagles’ first baseman allowed Schouten to reach and Heizelbetz to score to tie the game at twos.

After Chandler Evans was hit by a pitch, Redd hit an RBI single. Staheli followed it up with a two RBI double producing the final score of 5-2.

Heiselbetz came in to pitch the last 2 outs of the game drawing pop outs to center and the unofficial Sports Center play of the game: a mask peeling, diving catch in foul territory by catcher, Pettingill.

The Pirates ended the game with 8 total hits.

Moapa Valley will play Virgin Valley in Mesquite on Wednesday May 11 for round 3 of tournament play. The game starts at 4:00 pm.