Vaqueros sweep North Valleys, now hope for more

Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter

In the days leading up to the Fernley High School baseball team’s league opening doubleheader last Saturday against North Valleys, coach Jerry Torres had an inkling that might be the last time the Vaqueros would be on the field for a while.

For a group with eight seniors, who have all had great success in other sports, he’s hoping they’ll get the chance to finish at least part of their season.

Whether that happens, and what that might look like, is still very much in the air, although the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association announced this week it is working on contingency plans in case spring sports are allowed to resume.

In the meantime, the Vaqueros will have to be satisfied with their performance last Saturday, sweeping a doubleheader from North Valleys, 8-4 and 20-10. Torres said the Vaqueros played very well, combining timely hitting, good baserunning, and fundamentals. That recipe included a dominant pitchng performance by senior Matt Glover in the first game as well.

Glover took a shutout and an 8-0 lead into the seventh inning of the first game of the twinbill. Torres said he let Glover pitch longer than he ordinarily would, because of the upcoming layoff. But North Valleys loaded the bases on a walk, and error and a bloop single, and wound up plating four runs before the Vaqueros got out of the inning to seal the win.

In the second game, North Valleys opened the game with three runs in the top of the first, but Fernley answered with six in the bottom half. They led 14-5 when the Panthers scored five times in the top of the sixth to cut the lead to 14-10, but Fernley scored six in the bottom half and ended the game by the 10-run rule.

Torres said there is a much different atmosphere around this year’s team, which has eight seniors who have all played on championship teams in other sports.

“This group is tested, fearless and they want to compete and keep coming at you,” he said.

The previous week the Vaqueros had gone 1-3 in the Mike Bearman Memorial Tournament, losing 11-0 to Reno, beating North Valleys 12-3, losing 9-7 to Colfax (Calif.) and losing to Damonte Ranch.