Bulldogs Win State!

By VERNON ROBISON & LOU MARTIN

The Progress

Sirens rang out in the night early on Sunday morning in Mesquite. But it was not a catastrophe. Rather it was the victorious Virgin Valley High School Baseball team returning home after winning the State Championship on Saturday afternoon, May 21.

After travelling all afternoon from winnings in Fernley, Nevada, the team was met with a heroes welcome just after midnight at the old Oasis parking lot. They all hopped aboard a Mesquite Fire

Department engine and, with a full Mesquite Police Department escort, paraded up Mesquite Blvd and back to the high school in grand style.

It was all deserved! The Bulldog dream team swept the State finals last week going undefeated in the tournament.

Round 1: VVHS vs. Dayton
The Bulldogs began the tournament on Thursday afternoon with a complete dismantling of Dayton, the #2 seed in the North. It was never even close!
The Bulldogs scored 7 runs in the bottom of the first inning. The onslaught continued with 5 more Virgin Valley runs in the 2nd inning, two more in the third and three more in the fourth inning when the bloodshed was finally halted in accordance with the NIAA mercy rule.

Virgin Valley racked up 15 hits in the game. Kyler Sudweeks was on fire, going 4-for-4 at the plate to lead the Bulldogs in hits. Stratton Waite and Aidan Litzenberger also had multiple hits in the game.
Waite took the win on the mound for the Dawgs surrendering only one run on four hits over three innings and striking out 2. Martin Jordan pitched one inning in relief recording the last three outs for the Bulldogs.
The win set up a second round match up with the rival Moapa Valley team on Friday.

Round 1: Pirates beat Truckee
The Pirates had fought their way through a first round win against Truckee, 13-10, the day before where they had come back from a 2-1 deficit in the first inning by putting up an impressive 5 runs in the second to take the lead at 6-1.
The MVHS offense had been a collective effort in the game with 8 players getting hits in the game. Pirates Tyson Staheli, Landon Wresinski, Rylan Evans, Austin Heizelbetz, and Tyson Pettingill all had multiple hits. T. Staheli led the team in extra base hits with 2 doubles while R. Evans led the team with 4 RBIs.

Round 2: Rivals face off
The Pirates ran into trouble early in the second round tournament encounter with Virgin Valley on Friday. The Bulldogs scored a run in the first on a double by Jared Jensen and an RBI single from Drake Wakefield off Pirate starter Tyson Staheli. Staheli gave up five runs over one third of an inning.
Garrett Hadley was also treated badly by the Bulldogs torrid offense giving up eight hits and four runs in two and a third innings.

The Dawg offense collected 12 hits off the Pirate pitchers. Wakefield led the Bulldogs with three hits. Jensen, Kyler Sudweeks, Kurt Felix and pitcher Bryce Intagliata all had multiple hits for the Dawgs.
Chandler Evans went 2-2 to lead the Pirate hitters.
Intagliata went the distance giving up two runs on three hits plus striking out six.

Pirates lose consolation round
With the loss the Pirates were dropped into a second game on Friday: the final consolation round of the tournament against Truckee. Truckee had dispatched Dayton on Friday morning, 13-1.
The Moapa team got behind early in the game and couldn’t ever make up the lost ground, falling to the Wolverines 8-4 in the game and ending the Pirates’ season.
The Truckee team took a three-run lead in the first inning and then scored two more runs in the second, all while holding the Pirates scoreless.
The Pirate team got 7 hits in the game while the Wolverines notched 12.
Landon Wrzesinski led the Pirates in hits with 2.
The loss went to Rylan Evans who pitched all six innings. Evans allowed 12 hits and 8 runs, striking out 8.

VVHS wins State Final
That set the stage for a final championship game pitting Truckee against the VVHS dream team. By the end, the Dawgs came away with the State Championship, beating the Wolverines 12-6.
Sudweeks got the win for the Dawgs going five full innings before being relieved by Bryce Intagliata. Sudweeks only allowed two hits and three runs striking out seven Truckee batters.
The Bulldogs struck first scoring three runs in the bottom of the second inning. The big blow of the inning was a huge triple by Drake Wakefield.

Not to be denied, Truckee tied the game in the third with three runs of their own.
The Dawgs took the lead for good in the bottom of the inning scoring one run to make the score 4-3 after three innings.

The Bulldogs blew the game open in the bottom of the fifth, scoring five runs behind the strong hitting of Litzenberger, Intagliata and Drake Wakefield who all had RBI’s in the inning.
The Bulldogs added three more runs in the sixth inning to take a 12-3 lead into the seventh and final inning. The feisty Truckee squad would not go down easily as they managed to score three runs making the score more reasonable at 12-6.

Virgin Valley tallied 14 hits for the game led by Litzenberger and Wakefield with three each. Bulldog Stratton Waite also had multiple hits in the game.
The ride back from Northern Nevada was gratifying for the Dawgs as they not only brought back a Nevada State Championship, they were also awarded the Academic 3A Championship with a high-flying 3.52 grade point average for the team.

“As a coaching staff we just couldn’t be prouder of the boys and how they arose to the occasion to win the championship,” said first year Bulldog head coach Dan Wright. “We faced adversity and each time they battled right through it. The boys really came together as a family and had each other’s back. The kids are excited. It’s very gratifying to them and us as coaches to see the results of their hard work.”