Carson baseball tunes up for tough week ahead

The Carson High baseball team tuned up for a tough week ahead with two easy wins to open the Manogue Tournament on Tuesday.

Carson beat Elko 13-0 and Spanish Springs 21-10. The Senators will play the defending Northern 4A runner-up and champion over the next two days. Carson will face last year's Northern 4A runner-up McQueen at 3 p.m. today at Manogue and will face last year's Northern 4A champion Galena at 3 p.m. Thursday at Manogue.

Senator coach Steve Cook said the games will give his team a chance to see where it stands in the Northern 4A. Cook said his younger players continued to play well on Tuesday.

Among the players who Cook singled out for their play were first-time varsity players Kyle Stone and Tyler Smith and veterans Bryt Lewis and Markus Adams. David Leid, Nick Smallman and Smith all homered for Carson on Tuesday. Every player saw action for Carson on Tuesday except for Stephen Sawyers, who was resting a sore back.

"A lot of the younger guys got a lot of quality playing time," Cook said. "As long as we get better every day that's the plan. Overall I was happy with the way we played."

Paul Cagle started against Elko, throwing three scoreless innings while striking out four and allowing two hits. Smith pitched two scoreless innings the game that was called after 4 1/2 innings.

Smith struck out two and allowed one hit. He has now pitched four scoreless innings in two outings for Carson (7-0).

In the second inning, Tony Fagan was hit by a pitch, stole second and scored on Rob Valerius' single. In the third, Matt Rutledge singled, Joe Skates was hit by a pitch and after a wild pitch, Rutledge scored on Lewis' sacrifice fly to make it 2-0.

The Senators scored 11 runs in the fourth to break the game open. Leid walked and went all the way to third on Stone's sacrifice bunt. Smallman and Rutledge walked and Skates followed with an RBI single.

Adams walked and Lewis was hit by a pitch to force in a run, another run scored on an error and Leid followed with a grand slam home run. Stone singled, Valerius doubled and Smallman hit a three-run home run to finish the scoring.

Against Spanish Springs, Valerius and Stone each allowed three runs over two innings while David Eller allowed four runs over two innings. Rutledge pitched a scoreless seventh.

Cook said Valerius didn't pitch that badly. "We know what he can do," said Cook, who added he wanted to see some of his other pitchers on the mound. "We don't know what the other kids can do."

Carson scored five runs in the second when Leid was hit by a pitch, Stone and Drew Good walked and Skates and Adams walked to each force in a run. Lewis belted a two-run double and another run scored on an error.

In the third, Fagan doubled, Good hit an RBI single, Rutledge hit a two-run double and Adams had an RBI sacrifice fly to complete a four-run rally.

In the fourth, Lewis, Leid, Stone and Smallman all had RBI singles and Fagan had an RBI double for a five-run rally. In the fifth, Smith and Stone walked, Good was hit by a pitch and Rutledge walked and Kevin Holloway was hit by a pitch to force in two more runs.

In the sixth, Bone was hit by a pitch and Smith hit a two-run homer. In the seventh, Brett Valley walked, Cagle was hit by a pitch, one run scored on a fielder's choice, another run scored when Smith was hit by a pitch and a third run scored on a wild pitch to finish the scoring.

Against Elko, Valerius had two hits. Against Spanish Springs, Rutledge and Smith each had three RBI, Lewis had two hits and three RBI and Fagan doubled twice.