Robert Perea , The Fernley Reporter
For the second straight season, the Fernley High School baseball team will open the Northern 3A Region Tournament with a play-in game at Wooster.
The Vaqueros finished the regular season last weekend by winning two of three games against Elko to finish in a three-way tie with Lowry and Spring Creek for third place in the Northern 3A East and are the No. 4 seed for the tournament based on tiebreakers.
Lowry, Spring Creek and Fernley all finished with 7-8 league records. Lowry claimed the third seed by having a 4-2 record against the other teams involved in the tie, having swept a three-game series against Fernley and lost two of three to Spring Creek. Both Fernley and Spring Creek were 3-3 within the tie, but Fernley claimed the fourth seed because it beat Spring Creek two of three times head-to-head.
As the No. 4 seed, the Vaqueros will play at Wooster, the No. 3 seed from the West Division, at 1 p.m. Saturday. The winner will advance to play North Valleys on May 8 at Hug. Wooster defeated the Vaqueros in both meetings this season, sweeping a doubleheader 4-3 and 4-0 on March 8, but the Vaqueros come into the tournament having won seven of their last nine games.
The Vaqueros came into last week needing any combination of three wins over Elko or Spring Creek losses to Fallon and got exactly that.
The Vaqueros won Friday’s game over the Indians 5-1 and claimed a 10-9 win in eight innings in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, before losing the finale 8-0. Meanwhile, Spring Creek lost to Fallon 11-9 last Friday, before sweeping a doubleheader Saturday, 6-3 and 10-3.
For the Vaqueros, making the playoffs marks a dramatic turnaround from an 0-6 start in league play, when they got swept in their first two series by Fallon and Lowry.
“I couldn’t be prouder of just the buy in and the effort we got from the guys that are still here,” coach Thomas Chapin said. “That stuff doesn’t happen because of me or anybody else. That’s just those guys buying in to what they’re able to do, and what coach wants me to do.”
On Friday, the Vaqueros got a strong effort on the mound from Dylan Comer, who went all seven innings and allowed just one run on five hits, with six strikeouts and no walks.
The Vaqueros scored two runs in the first inning on an error and a run-scoring single by Nikko Pryor. They stretched the lead to 3-0 in the fourth inning on a single by Alex Welsh that scored Riley McCullar. They added some insurance in the sixth, on a double steal and a sacrifice fly by Spencer Pryor.
Then they won the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader in dramatic fashion. After giving up an 8-run fourth inning, the Vaqueros trailed 9-3, but chipped away with a run in the fourth and two in the fifth. Then in the bottom of the seventh, Layne Minoletti singled in a run to make it 9-7, scored on a ground out by Alex Juliot to cut the lead to 9-8 and Vance Swindlehurst scored the tying run on a passed ball.
That sent the game to extra innings, and in the bottom of the eighth, McCullar led off with a triple and scored the winning run on a single by Welsh.
“We get a walk-off win at home on Senior Day, by a senior, that’s the stuff you live for, that’s what you want to wake up and do,” Chapin said.
Elko controlled the third game throughout, with pitcher Toren Duke holding them to just two hits, while the Indians scored five runs in the third inning and three more in the fifth.
Even so, it was a series win against the team that finished as the No. 2 seed in the East.
“That’s a huge, awesome thing to do,” Chapin said. “Again, couldn’t be prouder of my guys. I think in the first two games it was some of the best hitting and pitching we’ve done this year.”
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