Nevada baseball wins eighth straight game

Friday, April 25, 2014
Nevada's Brett Norton catches a fly in the third inning of Thursday's game against the El Dorado Springs Bulldogs.

By Eric Wade

Daily Mail Sports Editor

"We got the game in, which is the biggest thing." Nevada Tigers head baseball coach Danny Penn and his squad entered Thursday afternoon unsure whether or not they would get to play as heavy rains forced the El Dorado Springs Bulldogs to close off their field, moving the game to Nevada.

Though the Tigers did have a tarp over the infield, it still wasn't a certainty that the two squads would get to play as rain continued to threaten through the majority of the contest. The weather cooperated just long enough, however, allowing the Tigers to extend their winning streak to eight games with a 9-1 victory.

"We were happy we were able to play," Penn said. "We had the infield tarped the other day and were hoping that the infield would be fine and it would just be a matter of getting the outfield ready to play."

The tarp almost wasn't enough to save the game, as Penn and assistant coach Kyle Talley discovered that it had leaked into the infield near third base, once the tarp was removed. Thanks to the efforts of the coaching staff and players, however, the field was ready to go by first pitch, allowing the two squads to get the game in.

Though the field was playable, conditions were far from ideal, resulting in a few struggles for both squads, especially in the outfield. Penn's squad was ultimately able to play through it with little trouble, however, finishing the contest with no errors -- a feat that has been considerably rarer than Penn might like.

We talked to the players before the game, you know, both teams are playing the same field. So the field and the conditions cannot be an excuse because, you know, we've got to make the plays, they've got to make the plays. The field conditions do not change for one team, versus the other.

The Tigers weren't the only ones to overcome the conditions, however. El Dorado Springs finished the day with a strong defensive showing of its own that featured a pair of circus catches by center fielder Kason Schwalm that got Penn's attention.

"Their center fielder made two very good catches going back," Penn said.

The first of those two circus catches came in the second inning, when Schwalm robbed Tigers first baseman Alex Payne of a hit when he snatched the ball out of the air while falling backward. The second came in the very next inning, when Schwalm made a nearly identical catch to rob Andy Heathman of a hit.

That strong defensive play didn't seem to matter as the Tigers drew first blood in the contest when Easton Mitchell scored on a sacrifice fly by Lane Ketterman to make it 1-0.

"I was happy with how we started in the first inning," Penn said. "When Easton got on, we moved him around. We kind of fell into our hitting fly balls habit again, unfortunately."

That tendency toward hitting fly balls may have stopped the Tigers from putting together more of a rally in the first inning, but it ultimately turned out to be what extended their lead, as well, when Mitchell hit a hard line drive for a single that scored Grant Wolfe and Cole Sanderson hit a double to bring home Morgan Long.

Heathman got the start for the Tigers for the first time this season in Thursday's contest and was nearly lights out until the fourth inning, when the Bulldogs opened the frame with a pair of hits by Riley Boyd and Schwalm, before Boyd came around to score on James Dubois' sacrifice fly.

That was all the offense El Dorado Springs was able to muster against Nevada's starter, as Heathman settled back in and never lost control of the contest. By the time his day was done, Heathman allowed just one earned run on three hits with seven strikeouts and one walk in five innings of work to earn the victory.

"He'd thrown twice in relief, an inning each time," Penn said of his starter. "His pitch counts, he hadn't gotten than 18 in an inning, so we wanted to stretch him out a little bit and see how he could fare over an extended outing."

Not only were the coaching staff's questions about how Heathman fare in an extended outing emphatically answered, he did it with surprising efficiency. Heathman averaged a little bit less than 12 pitches per inning, finishing the day having thrown just 58 total pitches.

"He still kept his pitch count down," Penn said. "He worked ahead of the batters. I don't know how many punch outs he ended up with, but he let the defense work for him."

Once Heathman's day came to an end, Sanderson took over on the mound and shut the Bulldogs down even more effectively, allowing just one hit with two strikeouts and a walk in two scoreless innings, despite having been off of the mound for six days.

"He's a gamer," Penn said of his starting catcher and relief pitcher. "He's going to be ready to go."

That dominance on the mound could have been more than enough for the Tigers to simply relax and coast their way to victory, but Penn's offense wasn't nearly done, yet. Over the course of their winning streak, the Tigers have seemed to take a liking to the sixth inning and Thursday's contest was no exception as Nevada blew the contest wide open with six runs on four hits, an error and a hit batter to take an eight-run lead into the final frame.

"There in the sixth inning, we led off with two hard-hit balls on the line," Penn said. "Then, we were able to kind of get them moving around on the bases, got El Do's defense moving and got six runs there in the sixth."

That was where the offense ended for both squads, as Sanderson retired all three batters he faced in the seventh inning to give the Tigers a 9-1 victory. By the time all was said and done, Mitchell led the offense for the Tigers, recording three hits and one RBI, as well as scoring one run.

With the win, the Tigers not only improved their winning streak to eight games, but lifted their overall record to 10-2 on the season. Next on the schedule for Penn's squad is Monday, when they host the Tigers of Carthage.

First pitch in that contest is scheduled for 4:30 p.m., at Lyons Stadium, weather permitting.

"I'm still hoping to clean some things up, offensively," Penn said. "I still think we're leaving some runs out there."

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