WINNEMUCCA - It is a situation the Lowry High School varsity baseball team would rather not be put in again after sweeping three road games from West Wendover this past weekend.
The Buckaroos, who went winless in five games during the first week of play in Reno, opened with a 51-0 win over the Wolverines on Friday, March 16. They then beat West Wendover 24-3 in game one of a doubleheader on Saturday. The final game was called off due to a lack of pitching for the Wolverines.
The NIAA record book doesn't have a stat for most runs in a game by a single team, but the record for combined runs in a game was 63 in a game between Mountain View and Pahranagat Valley that Mountain View won 32-31. The 51 runs are now second on the list. Bryan Noble also set NIAA records for hits in a game with six and runs in a game with seven. The previous records were five and six, respectively.
"I have never seen anything like this in my time coaching," said LHS head coach Ron Espinola. "I have been on the other end several times. You have seen teams score in the 20's and 30's and we scored over 30 against Truckee a few years ago. It does happen and in this case we did try to keep things in check. People can say what they want about the score but unless they were there, one, and two they understand the game. You look at 51-0 and all they did was run up the score. I will admit there was one stolen base called by the coaches late in the game and two more by a player on his own, when he was not supposed to and that was taken care of and corrected. When you look at it all together, anything we did or did not do did not contribute more to the score. The one thing I did not do and will not do is tell a kid to go up there and fail intentionally. How can you go tell a kid in good conscience to do his worst?"
Lowry (3-5 overall, 3-0 Ruby Mountain League) had 77 plate appearances in the opening game, aided by 18 walks by West Wendover and 11 hit batters. The Buckaroos sent 22 batters to the plate in the first inning, scoring 18 runs. Jesse Studebaker had four RBIs and two hits in the opening frame, while Gus Duncan had three RBIs. Brandon Okuma and Jace Billingsley each drove in two runs.
Lowry added nine runs in the second inning, with seven different players knocking in a run, including two each by Brandon Okuma and Noble for a 27-0 lead.
"You see the lopsided score and people start saying things about what you have done," Espinola said. "I did not want to endanger some of my players and it almost got to that point. I had guys batting left handed that normally don't in the first game on Saturday. I wasn't sure how they would react to an inside pitch left handed so I turned a couple guys back around to bat on the right side. We did what we did and we were moving 90 feet at a time but unfortunately we hit the ball well and where they were not. West Wendover did not have many errors and our kids were disciplined like we teach them."
While setting the two hitting records, Noble threw just 52 pitches (42 strikes) in the one-hit victory. He struck out 10 and walked none. Meanwhile, West Wendover threw 259 pitches in the five innings.
"Noble threw like Noble does and attacked the strike zone with a lead," Espinola said. "He got guys out and made them put the ball in play, which is exactly what you preach. You never envision yourself scoring 50 runs. We have scored over 30 one time in my 15 years of coaching. You see 20 runs fairly common but we shut everything down in the first inning Saturday after scoring five runs. The kids off the bench played four times as much as our starters, because we were pulling kids out in the first and second innings."
The Buckaroos scored six more times in the third and fifth innings, while scoring 12 times in the fourth for the final outcome. Alex Nimmick scored six runs, Billingsley and Michal Arenas each scored five and Matt Wells, Tyler Brumm and Gus Duncan four each.
"Not to taking anything from Wendover, they did not give in," added the coach. "You have to give them credit. In the face of that, I think I would have walked away. They didn't and you have to credit the players and coaches for sticking it out. I don't think at any point there was a lot said by both teams. In a situation like that, you don't know what may happen. Both teams were very sportsmanlike. It's easy to be a good sport when you are winning but in a spot like that it could be bad both ways and it didn't, which was a credit to them."
The first game of the scheduled Saturday doubleheader was much of the same, as Lowry scored 15 runs in the first inning. The Buckaroos sent 21 batters to the plate and left the bases loaded. Brumm had a three-run home run, the first of his high school career. Billingsley had three at bats in the opening frame with two singles and three RBIs. Jalen Formby, Nimmick and Brandon Okuma each had two hits.
The Buckaroos added five runs in the second and three more in the third, and scored just once in the final two innings. The second game of the doubleheader was called due to the lack of pitching by West Wendover.
Lowry put three pitchers on the mound, with Billingsley getting the win. Tanner Lecumberry and Formby pitched the final three innings as the game was called after four innings.
"They just ran out of pitching," added the coach. "Their pitchers threw a lot of pitches in the first day between four or five kids. They had a kid that threw on the first day and tried to go again Saturday but could not. At that point you do not want to put a kid out there that hasn't pitched and I would not do that. That is asking too much from a kid and that is a completely different animal. You can hurt yourself or someone else. Having lived through this weekend it is pretty indescribable. I had someone, and I don't know if it was in jest, but I was asked if I was ashamed of myself. My team played well, they played the right way and played with class and I will never be ashamed of that."
Lowry was scheduled to play at Pershing County on Tuesday. Results were not available at press time. The Buckaroos travel to Fernley this weekend for three crossover games. They face defending 3A state champion Churchill County today at 2 p.m. Lowry plays Fernley and Dayton on Saturday at noon and 2 p.m., respectively.
[[In-content Ad]]
