The good news for the Fernley High School baseball team is that it has continued its strong play in the past month, with 11 wins in the last 12 games. The bad news is that the teams above them in the Northern 3A East standings have all nearly matched that.
But the best news is that the Vaqueros control their own destiny for a chance at a top playoff seed.
With a three-game sweep in South Tahoe last weekend, the Vaqueros are in fourth place with an 11-4 record in league play. They have a two-game lead over Wooster for fourth place and are one game behind Dayton for third. Elko leads the league at 14-1, Spring Creek is second at 13-2 and Dayton is third at 14-3.
All four of the top teams will be playing each other in the final three weeks of the season. Elko has Fallon, Dayton and Fernley left on the schedule, which have compiled a combined record of 31-14.
Spring Creek faces Truckee, Fernley and Dayton, which are 30-15 combined. Dayton still has to face Elko and Spring Creek, which are a combined 27-3, and Lowry, which is 0-15, while Fernley has Sparks, which is also 0-15, followed by Spring Creek and Elko.
Each team in that group has the opportunity to play its way either into the top of the standings or out of the top four altogether.
The Vaqueros are scheduled to play at Sparks this weekend, with a single game at 3 p.m. Friday and a doubleheader Saturday. In addition to being 0-15 in league play, the Railroaders have been outscored 252-8 in those games and have been shut out in 10 of their 15 league losses.
The Vaqueros kept pace with the top of the league last week by sweeping South Tahoe, winning 13-7 on Friday and 8-1 and 18-15 on Saturday.
“We played pretty good overall on the weekend,” coach Thomas Chapin said. “I was happy with our approach and competitiveness at the plate. We had great at-bats all week.”
Riley McCullar went 4-for-5 in Friday’s game, driving in four runs and scoring three, Vance Swindlehurst was 2-for-3 with two runs and two RBI, and Maverick Parks also drove in two runs.
The Vaqueros led 8-2 before South Tahoe scored four runs in the fifth inning. It was 8-7 until the Vaqueros scored five runs in the top of the seventh, keyed by a two-run double by McCullar and a two-run single by Parks.
In the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, Jayse Jones made sure there were no similar tense moments, allowing just one run in six innings, while Nikko Pryor had a huge game at the plate, driving in five runs with a triple and a grand slam.
Pryor’s triple in the first inning scored McCullar to make it 1-0. Swindlehurst and McCullar both doubled in runs in the fifth inning to put Fernley up 4-1, and Pryor punctuated the game with his grand slam in the top of the seventh.
“Jayse Jones did a great job on the bump for us on Saturday morning, and really our pitching seems solid for most of the time, they just had a good number of solid hits,” Chapin said. “Nikko Pryor and Riley McCullar were hot at the plate and really propelled the offense. Vance Swindlehurst did a good job at the dish as well.”
In Saturday’s second game, Fernley put up 18 runs on 17 hits, 14 of them singles, with Swindlehurst and Nikko Pryor both driving in four runs. South Tahoe scored its 15 runs on 14 hits, 13 of them singles. Fernley also made eight errors and the Vikings made four.
The Vaqueros appeared to take control with an eight-run fifth inning that gave them a 13-4 lead, but South Tahoe had an eight-run inning of its own in the bottom of the sixth to get within 17-14.
“Game 3 got a little ugly, but it showed how the guys are able to battle adversity and pull out a win,” Chapin said.
Now the Vaqueros need to avoid a stumble this weekend against Sparks, then they’ll have the chance in the final two weeks to state their case for a top playoff seed.
“Our focus is to keep preparing like we’re playing the best team in the league each week and getting better every day,” Chapin said.
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