During heavy snow flurries on Friday afternoon, the Battle Mountain High School baseball team hosted the West Wendover High School Wolverines.
The two baseball teams played one game before being forced to cancel the following two games due to snow.
Battle Mountain players spent the morning clearing the baseball field of snow and placing sand around the base pads after heavy snow storms passed through the area. Longhorn head coach Cory Mills hoped to get in both games on Friday afternoon.
Despite the weather, Battle Mountain pitched well in the opening game with Mason Fuller going in as the starting pitcher.
Fuller pitched 4.2 innings, while teammate Hayden Morris finished the final one-third of an inning, resulting in a shutout win.
Battle Mountain took the lead in the first inning after Reese Artz drew a base-loaded walk. The Longhorns then blew the game wide open scoring 11 runs in the bottom of the third inning.
The big inning started thanks to walks by Kade Quintana, Aldo Castellanos and Austin Natoli. Then errors on baseballs put in play by Artz and Quintana, which was followed by a triple by Fuller and singles by Quinton Defoor and Erik Martinez.
Gabe Naveran scored on a fielders choice before the inning scoring finished with a double by Defoor. The inning helped the Longhorns end the first game after the fifth inning due to mercy rule at 12-0.
The Longhorns, able to win their opening league game of the season, were forced to wait until the following weekend to play again with the snowfall beginning to be too much for the teams to compete.
The second game was called due to weather and with continued snow through the next day. The Longhorns and Wolverines canceled the third game in the weekend series.
As for the team rescheduling games against the Wolverines, BMHS head coach Cory Mills explained, “It will all depend on league standings and whether or not us or Wendover will need another win or two to get into playoffs. The only bye week we have is the weekend is before the regional tournament, so we won’t know until late in the season. If we both make regionals and those two games won’t affect standings, then there’s no reason for them to travel again.”
The Longhorn baseball team currently sits at 4-1 on the season and 1-0 in league play. The team will host the Yerington Lions for a three-game series on Friday and Saturday.
The game will start at 2 p.m. on Friday, and the third game will begin at 10 a.m. the following Saturday.
