Fallon’s baseball team celebrates after defeating Truckee on Friday.
Photo by Thomas Ranson.
After surviving a nine-inning affair to open the tournament, the Greenwave baseball team buckled down to defeat Truckee twice to win its second-straight 3A Northern regional crown.
Fallon defeated Truckee, 5-3, for the second time in two days on Saturday at Hug High School after Truckee defeated Fernley, 10-6, in the morning to qualify for state.
Fallon returns to the state tournament for the third-straight season.
Fallon will face No. 2 Boulder City at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, while No. 1 The Meadows and Truckee play at 1 p.m. at Pahrump Valley High School. Fallon defeated The Meadows to open last year's state tournament in Fallon, but the Greenwave fell to eventual champion Virgin Valley and then to The Meadows in the consolation bracket.
The winners of Thursday's games play at 1:30 p.m. on Friday while the losers play at 11 a.m. The winner of the 11 a.m. game and loser of the 1:30 p.m. game will play late on Friday. The championship is Saturday at 10 a.m.
FALLON 4, TRUCKEE 2
The regional title was decided between the top seed from both of the 3A East and 3A West.
Fallon jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning before Truckee scored two unanswered runs. Fallon added an insurance run in the sixth inning.
James Kelsey’s two-strike single to right field brought in a pair of runs in the first inning before Eric Cornejo’s one-out single scored Trevor Hyde, who was hit by a pitch, and Kelsey to give Fallon a 4-0 lead.
Luis Lopez-Pinuelas kept Truckee in check over the first three innings before running into trouble in the fourth inning. A double and single put runners on second and third before Truckee brought both runners home on a single into center field to cut the deficit in half, 4-2. After another single, Mason Storm relieved Lopez-Pinuelas and got out of the jam with a double play when shortstop Anthony Gonzalez threw to first baseman Zack Adams who then threw to catcher Anthony Juarez at the plate for the third out of the inning.
Truckee scored on a two-out single in the fifth but Fallon returned the favor with Gonzalez’s two-out single in the sixth.
Tommy Ames, who entered in the sixth, got the first out in the final inning before a ground ball was misplayed in the infield, bringing the tying run to the plate. Ames, though, shut down the Wolverines with back-to-back strikeouts.
Adams and Juarez led Fallon at the plate with two hits apiece.
FALLON 6, TRUCKEE 2
Fallon clinched a state berth the next day with a 6-2 win over Truckee.
Like the championship, Fallon jumped out to an early lead with three runs in the first before adding three more in the sixth to lead 6-0.
Kelsey doubled on a line drive to open the scoring in the first inning, and Hyde drove in Kelsey and Carnahan with a grounder into left field. Zackery’s RBI single scored Maxton Richardson before Kelsey’s hard-hit grounder was misplayed at second, allowing Zackery and Giovanetti to score.
Truckee tacked on a couple runs in the bottom half of the fourth.
Adams pitched a gem, going the distance and allowing two earned runs and scattering seven hits. He also had Fallon’s only multi-hit game with two singles.
FALLON 10, LOWRY 9
In Thursday’s opener, the Greenwave used late-game heroics to come from behind to stun Lowry, 10-9, in nine innings.
After tying the game in the seventh inning, Fallon completed the comeback with clutch hitting in the ninth.
Evan Giovanetti singled on an infield popup to the pitcher and then advanced to second after Juarez was hit in the middle of the back. After a popout, Gonzalez roped the ball to center, Giovanetti rounded third and dove for the plate to give Fallon the win.
Juarez shook off a rusty start before running into trouble in the sixth inning when Lowry tied the game at five before scoring four more runs. A hit-by-pitch tied the game followed by back-to-back two-run singles.
Ames relieved Juarez and retired the next two Buckaroos.
An error and walk put runners on first and third with one out for Kelsey to hit a hard grounder to right field, both Chase Carnahan and Nathaniel Zackery. After a groundout, Adams singled in Kelsey.
The inning ended in controversy when pinch-runner Brenan Alves was caught in a rundown between first and second before being tagged out after Adams crossed the plate. However, the umpires convened after the play and said that Alves was called out for running out of the baseline.
After Ames pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning, Juarez hit a one-out triple over the centerfielder and then scored on Zackery's sac fly to left.
Ames hit the first batter in the eighth and was relieved by lefty Kelsey, who struck out the side in the eighth and a pair in the ninth.