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Tigers sweep Parsons at home
Two-out rallies. The one thing a baseball coach dreads the most appeared to be the story of the night as the Nevada Tigers baseball team made its return to Lyons Stadium to take on the Vikings of Parsons High School in a special varsity doubleheader Monday night.
On a night that featured a total of six two-out rallies in just 10 innings, the Tigers found themselves in a pair of tough, up-and-down battles that ultimately resulted in a home sweep in the Tigers' second interstate matchup of the year. The Tigers took control early and earned a strong 19-7 victory in the opener before battling back to take the nightcap by a final score of 17-7.
"I'm proud of the way the kids came out and played, especially in the second game," Tigers head coach Kellan Foster said.
It looked as though the Tigers would have a long night ahead of them as starter Ross Wolfe struggled to find the strike zone, throwing just one strike in his first 15 pitches and walking the first three batters to come to the plate. Wolfe wasted little time regaining his composure, however, and needed a total of 20 pitches to get out of the inning, striking out two and stranding all three runners on the base paths. "I was having memories there from Carthage," Foster said of Wolfe's first-inning struggles.
That reference was to the 41 runs in three games that the Tigers gave up in the Bill O'Dell tournament last week in Carthage that ended with a disappointing 17-5 defeat at the hands of the host Tigers.
The Vikings came out in the home half of the frame with a marked amount of struggles of their own. Starter Wes Krull threw just 1-3 of an inning as he was seemingly unable to find the strike zone with nearly every pitch he threw. Despite retiring just one batter, Krull faced the entire Tigers batting order in the frame, allowing nine earned runs.
Krull gave up the mound to freshman Craig Beachner, who retired two of the three hitters he faced, but the damage had already been done. The Tigers finished the opening frame with a total of nine runs on just four hits with three walks and three hit batters to take an early 9-0 lead.
The Vikings looked as though they might be able to make a bit of a comeback as Wolfe's struggles on the mound continued. Wolfe and his defense never wavered, however, and held the Vikings to just one run in the frame, taking a 9-1 lead into the top of the second.
The Tigers wasted little time getting that run back in the home half of the frame as they took advantage of the fourth and fifth walks of the game to plate two more runs, extending their lead to 10 runs to bring the run rule back to the forefront of everyone's mind and open up an 11-1 lead.
The Vikings had other ideas, however, as they answered with a strong four-run rally that didn't start until Wolfe gave up a pitcher's worst nightmare -- a two-out walk. As often happens, the Vikings made Wolfe pay for that misstep, notching four runs on two hits after the first two batters were retired to cut the lead to 11-5.
As they had done throughout the contest, the Tigers battled back in the home half of the frame, however, earning back all four of those runs on four more hits to extend their lead back to 10 at 15-5 after three innings.
Though relaxation could have set in as the Tigers shut down the Parsons offense in the top of the fourth, leaving them with just one inning to play before the game would be called by run rule, but that was not the case as the Tigers mounted one final rally in the home half of the frame, leading to four more runs and a 19-5 lead.
Needing at least five more runs in the fifth inning to extend the game, the Vikings attempted to get the bats going again and were able to do just that, but came up short as they put up just two of the five needed runs against reliever Zach Vignola, allowing the Tigers to hold on for a 19-7 victory in five innings.
"To come out and win a 10-run rule one is good for the kids," Foster said. "That's the difference between those games we win and the games we lose, the kids battling back."
The roles appeared to reverse in the second game of the night as the Tigers jumped out to an early 3-0 lead after one inning, only to see that lead turn into a four-run deficit heading into the home half of the second. After allowing the Tigers to plate three runs on just two hits in the home half of the first, the Parsons offense responded with a six-run rally in the top of the second to take a 7-3 advantage.
That advantage was quickly cut in half as the Tigers put up another strong rally of their own in the bottom of the second, plating two runs to pull within two at 7-5.The Tigers completed the comeback just one inning later as they mounted a very strong one-out rally that was highlighted by Cory Kerbs' first home run of the season -- a two-run blast to left field -- to turn the tides and give the Tigers an 11-7 lead after three innings.
The Tigers gave themselves a bit of breathing room with the sixth two-out rally of the night in the home half of the fourth inning in which they put up two more runs without a hit to extend the advantage to six at 13-7 after four frames.
Reliever Kyle "Bubba" Banes more than did his job for the Tigers as he finished the game without allowing another run and ended another Tigers rally in the home half of the fifth inning-- this time with one out -- with a two-run double to the fence in right field that gave the Tigers a 17-7 victory in five innings to complete the doubleheader sweep.
"Kyle Banes came in and threw excellent in the second game, the best we've seen him throw," Foster said.
With those two wins, the Tigers lifted their record back up above the .500 mark to 5-4 and will take the field at Lyons Stadium once more this week when they host Butler on Thursday at 4:30 p.m.
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