Banfield pitches Carson to season-opening win

Charlie Banfield was in mid-season form on the mound, and that's great news for the Carson Senators.

Banfield threw six strong innings of four-hit baseball, and the Senators got some clutch hitting from Nick Domitrovich, Gehrig Tucker and Rory Petersen to roll past Fallon 6-1 in the season-opening baseball game for both schools Thursday at Ron McNutt Field.

Banfield fanned six and hit two batters. He threw less than 80 pitches and retired 16 of the last 20 batters he faced. After he pitched out of a first-inning jam, he cruised until the sixth when Fallon scored its only run.

"I had a good pitch count," Banfield said. "It was OK; it was pretty good. I was just throwing fastballs and changes. On the change, I just change the grip on the ball. It's early, and I'm still working on my curveball.

"Because of basketball, I haven't thrown as many bullpens. They put a new mound that is about an inch higher and it's the first time I've thrown off it."

Carson coach Cody Farnworth was pleased with the effort of his junior right-hander.

"Charlie threw well," Carson coach Cody Farnworth said. "Early he was leaking a little bit where he was out front instead of getting over the top. Rory (Petersen) called the game and did a good job. We played a nice, clean game.

"It was good to see the kids excited to be out there and excited to play. It was a good start."

Carson scored a quick run in the first off Alonzo Williams. After one out, Domitrovich tripled and scored on Petersen's infield out. A year ago, Domitrovich's ball would have probably cleared the fence.

"You can feel like you've crushed the ball and it's not going anywhere," Domitrovich said about the new bats the teams are using.

After leaving two runners stranded in scoring position in the second, Carson tacked on two more runs in the third.

With one out, Domitrovich singled and moved to third on Petersen's double. Casey Wolfe hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Domitrovich and Petersen scored on a wild pitch. The inning ended with another runner in scoring position.

A sacrifice fly by Domitrovich made it 4-0 after four. In the fifth, Tucker had a bloop single to right to score Petersen, who had doubled, and Luke Maher to make it 6-0.

Fallon scored in the sixth on a two-out double by Cody Long and a single by J.J. Boyle. The latter made the third out of the inning trying to stretch the hit into a double.

Tyler Valley came on to work a scoreless seventh in a non-save situation.

Fallon coach Lester deBraga didn't seem overly disappointed after the game.

"You always expect to do a little better," he said. "We're young and rebuilding. It was disappointing that we didn't execute when we had runners in scoring position. Carson played a great game."

It was a complete game in all phases. Carson didn't make an error, got good pitching and hit the ball well.

"It was nice to start the season this way, '' Domitrovich said. "Everybody picked it up after the scrimmage on Saturday. We didn't make any errors today, and that's a big change from last year."

NOTES: Carson plays today in the Mike Bearman Tournament. The Senators play at Spanish Springs at 10:30 a.m., and then play at Reed at 4 p.m. On Saturday, Carson hosts Elko at 10 a.m. and Douglas at 3 p.m. ... Farnworth said that Jace Zampirro and Domitrovich will get the starting pitching assignments today.