After spending the first month of the season on the road, the Lowry High School baseball team was looking forward to making its home debut this past weekend.
It appeared Mother Nature had other ideas, after a wild weather day last Thursday that included thunderstorms, high winds, rain and snow. The Buckaroos spent much of Thursday trying to get its field prepared to play this weekend by clearing snow off it.
Lowry was able to host Elko this past weekend and beat the Indians 5-4 on Friday afternoon. The Indians came back to sweep a doubleheader on Saturday 12-4 and 11-2. The Buckaroos are now 3-6 in the Northern 3A and 3-11 overall.
“We were able to get through our mistakes in the win on Friday,” said LHS head coach Ron Espinola. “We just made way too many mistakes today (Saturday). If you look at it pitching wise, everyone we put out there did a respectable job. We have to make that play in front of you, and most importantly make it and we just did not do that. Right now it is the mental aspect that is hurting us. We are putting ourselves in a bad situation. We are just not being aggressive enough across the board.”
Lowry rallies to beat Elko
The Buckaroos’ Kyle Young had his best outing of the year on the mound in earning the complete-game victory. He scattered eight hits through seven innings. The senior struck out five batters.
“We did not play a perfect game, but got a great outing from Kyle,” Espinola said. “He was able to spot his pitches well.”
Lowry opened up the scoring in the bottom of the first inning, after starting with back-to-back singles by Ridge Ricketts and Brendan Domire, both sophomores. Ricketts scored the first run after a double steal, that saw Domire advance to second base. Domire scored after Jake Marriott reached base on an error.
The Indians cut the deficit in half in the second inning, but the Buckaroos got the run back in the bottom of the second, when Jake Barnes plated a run on balk after leading off the frame with a triple.
Elko tied the game in the fifth inning without collecting a hit. Lowry committed four errors, allowing the Indians to score twice and make the score 3-3.
Elko used three consecutive singles to go in front 4-3 in the sixth inning, but it wasn’t enough. With one out in the bottom of the sixth inning, Riley Sakurada was hit by a pitch. He eventually reached third base on a stolen base and error. After a walk to Jake Barnes, Anthony Good grounded out to second base, which scored Sakurada. Nico Espinola provided the winning run with a single to right field that plated Barnes.
Elko had two batters reach base in the seventh inning, but Young was able to get a fly ball to end the game.
Ricketts, Domire, Barnes, Tazmin Milton and Espinola each had a hit.
Elko uses quick
start to beat Lowry
Lowry got off to a rough start in Saturday’s first game, committing four errors in the first inning,
The Indians scored six times in the opening inning on just three hits. Elko extended the gap to 9-0 before Lowry got on the scoreboard in the fourth inning with three runs.
Jayson Smith, Marriott and Sakurada began the inning with doubles. Sakurada scored the final run of the frame off a sac bunt by Michael Rangel. Marriott added a RBI-single in the fifth inning, only to see the Indians score three more times in the sixth inning.
Lowry had 10 hits in the game, but left seven runners on base. Domire, Smith and Marriott each had two hits.
Barnes started for Lowry and suffered the loss in 2.1 innings of work. He allowed nine runs (two earned) on seven hits. He struck out three and walked none. Marriott and Domire finished out the game on the mound.
Indians finish sweep
of Buckaroos
Elko grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first inning and never trailed. The Indians expanded its advantage to 5-0 in the fifth inning, when the Buckaroos battled back with two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Domire singled and Young tripled to account for Lowry’s only runs. Elko broke the game open with six runs in the sixth inning. The Buckaroos were hurt by their defense with nine errors.
Lowry had 10 hits, led by Young with three hits. Darrin Nelson and Domire had two hits apiece. The Buckaroos left nine runners on base.
Smith suffered the loss in 5.1 innings of work. He allowed six runs (two earned) on 11 hits.
Lowry returns to the road this weekend to play Dayton. The series starts on Friday at 3 p.m. The two schools play a doubleheader on Saturday at 11 a.m. The Dust Devils are coming off a three-game sweep of Fernley and are second in the Northern 3A at 6-3.
“Right now our competition is ourselves,” Espinola said. “We can not worry about anybody else. “We are beating ourselves badly. We did do some good things, but it is disappointing right now. We took Monday off to get a break. We know what we need to work on and make what we do Monday through Thursday apply to the games on Friday and Saturday.”
