Senators earn split on Senior Day

On the day Carson High's baseball team was officially eliminated from reaching the regional playoffs and celebrated Senior Day, the Senators showed they still had a little fight left in them.

Key first-inning hits by seniors Blake Plattsmier and David Charles ignited a four-run first inning, and Carson went on to top Bishop Manogue 10-5 in the second game of Saturday's Sierra League doubleheader at Ron McNutt Field.

In the opener, Bishop Manogue snapped a 7-all tie with five runs in the sixth en route to a 14-7 win.

Carson is now 5-10 with three games at South Tahoe (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday), while Manogue concluded its season with an 11-7 record. Douglas dropped a doubleheader to Galena to fall to 8-7, but the Tigers hold the tiebreaker over Carson.

"I'm proud of these guys," Carson coach Cody Farnworth said. "They've always battled every game. We've had a couple of games that were lopsided.

"We're swinging it better. We're nowhere near where we want to be as a team. It was nice to get one of these games to show them they are doing things right."

Carson did everything right in the first inning of the second game against Ben Hewson, who helped the Senators by walking two hitters.

Dylan Sawyers walked and Nick Domitrovich reached first when his sacrifice bunt was misplayed. Following a double steal and strikeout, Plattsmier drove in both runners with a single to right-centerfield. After Colby Blueberg struck out and David Feltner walked, Drew Moreland and senior David Charles ripped run-scoring singles to make it 4-0.

Plattsmier has been swinging a hot bat for the past couple of weeks, and is finally shaking off the rust from not playing for a couple of years.

"I've spent a lot of time with the coaches," Plattsmier said. "I just believe in myself."

"He's starting to figure things out (at the plate)," Farnworth said. "We'll see what he does next week. It was nice to get four runs in the first and be up on somebody like that.

Sawyers again ignited the Senators' rally in the second with a double and moved to third on an infield out. Austin Pacheco struck out, but reached first when the catcher couldn't coral the wild pitch. Pacheco stole second and both runners scored when Blueberg hit a two-run single for a 6-0 lead.

That would turn out to be all the offense Blueberg needed even though his teammates even though his teammates pushed across four more runs, three of them scoring on hits by Domitrovich.

Blueberg retired 10 of the first 12 batters he faced before Manogue scored three runs, two earned, to cut the deficit to 8-3.

Blueberg had an easy fifth inning, but hit two batters in the sixth, allowing Manogue to trim the lead to 9-5.

"I felt amazing at the beginning," Blueberg said. "I was able to spot anything I threw."

"I think he got tired," Farnworth said. "You play a couple of games, and he's hitting and running, and you get tired a little. He got us to the seventh."

Reliever Connor Beattie struck out the side in the seventh.

In the opener, the Miners scored one in the third off Carson starter Adam Whitt. Carson roared back with three in the bottom of the inning, two coming on an opposite-filed homer by Austin Pacheco and one on a run-scoring single by Domitrovich.

Manogue scored two in the third and four in the fifth for a 7-5 lead. Sean DeWeese hit a two-run double in the third for the visitors. Carson tied the game at 7 when Pacheco delivered a sacrifice fly, Plattsmier had a run-scoring single and Blueberg also had a run-scoring single.

DeWeese and Niles Lujan each delivered two-run hits in the sixth when the Miners forged ahead 12-7.