A pair of large deficits against Elko and Wooster proved to be too much to overcome as the Fernley High School baseball team saw its season end with two losses in the 3A Northern League Tournament last weekend in Dayton.
The Vaqueros lost their opening game to Elko last Thursday, 17–13, after cutting a 10–2 deficit to 13–11.
Facing elimination on Friday, the Vaqueros trailed Wooster 7–2 before scoring four times in the top of the sixth. Cayden Corl hit a home run in the bottom of the sixth inning to extend Wooster’s lead back to 8–6.
The Colts brought in their top pitcher, Cooper Fuss, to try to close the game out. Fuss had thrown 107 pitches the day before in a loss to Spring Creek. He immediately got the first two outs, but Matt Bigrigg singled to keep the Vaqueros’ chances alive. A wild pitch sent pinch runner Sidnny Clarke to second base, where he scored on a single by Jayse Jones to cut the lead to 8–7, but a fly ball to right field was caught by Wooster’s Brayden Box to end the game.
“I thought we had a lot of talent, a lot of effort on that team, and I knew we were going to be in a spot to compete in those games, thinking that we had what it takes to get those two wins here this weekend and be playing in the next one,” coach Thomas Chapin said. “It just didn’t go our way at times.”
In the first game of the tournament Thursday, Riley McCullar and Spencer Pryor hit back-to-back home runs in the top of the first inning for a 2–0 Fernley lead. Elko answered with three runs in the first and seven in the second inning to take a 10–2 lead.
In the third inning, Alex Juliot singled in one run and Brody Jones singled in two to get within 10–5. The Vaqueros added two more in the fourth inning when Pryor singled in a run and Brody Jones was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Elko pushed the lead back to 13–7 in the bottom of the fourth with runs scoring on a single, a squeeze bunt and a sacrifice fly.
Riley McCullar’s grand slam in the top of the fifth put Fernley right back in the game at 13–11, but Elko answered with a rally in the bottom of the sixth to move ahead 17–11. McCullar doubled in two more runs in the top of the seventh, but Elko’s Armando Acosta got the final three outs.
“What I loved about it was their effort,” Chapin said. “There’s a lot of good things; it just wasn’t enough good things at the end of the day.”
The Vaqueros finish the season with a 21–13 record, 15–9 in the 3A North. Chapin said he believes 21 wins is the second-most wins the program has ever had, behind the 2001 team that won the state championship.
“It was a great year overall for the program and we’re only going to keep going better,” he said.
Chapin said he is grateful for the impact the seniors on this year’s team have had on the program, particularly in his two years as head coach.
“They’ve kind of set the tone for where I think this program can go and where I can take it, and I can’t ever thank guys like that enough,” he said. “You can be as good of a coach as you want in your life, but if you don’t have the guys behind you that are leading the way for you and being captains and leaders, then you’re not going to get much done.”
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