However, that is the scenario that played out as the Badgers opened play in the Buffalo Wild Wings Wood Bat Tournament on Thursday, June 14, in Caldwell, Idaho. Spring Creek's McCade Wing threw a no-hitter against Meridian, as the Badgers won 8-0 in five innings.
Lowry High grad Bryan Noble kept the hitless streak going through four innings against Bishop Kelly on Friday, June 15, only to lose to the Idaho school 3-2 in eight innings. In another low-scoring game on Saturday, Greater Nevada dropped a 3-1 decision to Vallivue and finished the tournament with an 8-4 defeat to the Boise Senators.
"Our pitchers threw the ball fantastic," said coach Ron Espinola. "You start the tournament with a no hitter by McCade and Noble throws four perfect innings to start the second game. You never see back-to-back no hitters. Overall it was better for us than the previous week. The week before we were giving up big innings and that was against younger competition. We were facing much higher competition this week. If you have a defensive lapse here or there, it kills you against these teams. You know you are not going to get many runs."
In the no hitter over Meridian, Wing struck out three and walked five but none of the free passes came back to hurt the Badgers. His one walk in the first was erased by a double play and after walking the bases loaded with two outs in the second inning, he struck out the final batter to end the frame.
Greater Nevada picked up all the offense it needed with three runs in the first inning, as Lane Newman singled home Cedric Zumwalt for the first run of the game. Newman and Noble eventually scored on bases-loaded walks by Zephan Zeiler and Nelson. The Badgers tacked on four runs in the second inning on the strength of singles by Noble, Levi Bliss and Nelson.
Zumwalt and Newman put back-to-back singles together in the third for the final run of the game. The Badgers had eight hits on the day, all singles. Newman led the way with two and six others had one hit. Newman and Nelson each had two RBIs.
The matchup with Bishop Kelly proved to be a pitcher's dual, with just two hits through four innings, both of those from the Badgers on a double by Zumwalt and a single by Christian Dawson. Greater Nevada broke the scoreless tie in the top of the fifth on a triple by Zumwalt that scored Austen Plank, who reached on a fielder's choice. Zumwalt came around to score after an error by the Bishop Kelly third baseman.
The Greater Nevada hitless streak ended at 14 innings, as Bishop Kelly picked up its first two hits of the game. After loading the bases with one out, Noble got the last two batters to fly out, ending the inning.
The Badgers continued to hold a 2-0 lead going into the bottom of the seventh, when Bishop Kelly was able to tie the game and send it into extra innings. The tying runs came with two outs as the batter took Noble's first pitch to left field for a single.
"It was just a couple of errors that came back to haunt us," Espinola said. "We had a 2-0 lead going into the seventh and could not hold on to it. A couple of timely hits would have helped as well."
The Badgers had their chance to score in the eighth but left two batters on base. With one out in the bottom of the eighth, Bishop Kelly singled to put a runner on base and after an error at second base, a second single in the inning proved to be the winning run.
Noble threw seven innings and picked up a no decision with 10 strikeouts and three walks on five hits. Nelson suffered the loss, giving up the run in the eighth inning. Zumwalt led Greater Nevada with three hits, including a single, double and triple.
"We were not expecting to get 12 to 14 hits a game in this tournament," added the coach. "The kid we saw from Bishop Kelly was a real solid lefty and pretty legit. The last three kids we saw in the tournament were all solid and had excellent change ups to go with two other good pitches."
Vallivue provided all of its offense in the first two innings on Saturday, building a 3-0 lead off of Bliss, who started for the Badgers and went the distance on the mound.
Greater Nevada struggled with its offense, picking up just four hits in the game. Two of those came in the top of the fourth, as Zumwalt led off with a triple and scored on a single by Wing. The Badgers had just two runners reach base in the final three innings, with a walk in the sixth erased on a double play.
Bliss took the loss, giving up three runs (none earned) on three hits, four strikeouts and two walks. Wing had two of the four hits.
In the tournament finale, Greater Nevada overcame a 3-1 deficit in the bottom of the third inning, scoring three times to take its first lead at 4-3. Nelson led off the frame with a single and with one out and following a walk to Plank, Zumwalt singled home Nelson and later scored on an error to give the Badgers a 4-3 advantage. However that was all the offense for Greater Nevada, who did not have a runner reach base in the final three innings.
Boise tied the game in the top of the fourth and used a four-run seventh inning to break the game open. Zeiler started for the Badgers and went three innings and picked up a no decision. Tanner Lecumberry also went three innings and was tagged with the loss.
"That was the first time Zeiler has been on the mound in over a year coming off surgery," Espinola said. "He threw the ball really well. You would expect him to be a little rusty, since he hasn't pitched since his freshmen year. He was good back then and has obviously maintained that."
Greater Nevada was scheduled to open play at the Manogue tournament in Reno on Thursday against North Valleys and Galena. Results were not available at press time. The Badgers are scheduled to play Carson today at 11:30 a.m. and Spanish Springs at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday. Greater Nevada's opponent on Sunday has yet to be determined.
"The thing was that the week before our pitching was erratic and we were hitting the ball well and our defense goes," Espinola said. "This week the pitching was fantastic and the hitting was there but you can't expect a kid every time out when you are facing legitimate pitching to be on every time."
[[In-content Ad]]
