The Winnemucca 9-11 year-old Little League all-star team went to Carlin determined to secure a spot at the state tournament in Boulder City on July 17.
The Winnemucca boys had a first-round bye in the tournament, and then they matched up against Ruby Mountain (Spring Creek) on Friday who defeated Elko 16-4 in the first round on Thursday.
Winnemucca started strong on Friday night with seven runs in the bottom of the first inning and then held Ruby Mountain scoreless throughout the four inning affair on their way to a 10-0 victory.
Bryce Niblack cracked a two-run homer in the second inning of the victory,
“That was my seventh home run of the season and it felt awesome," Niblack said.
The Winnemucca 9-11 all-stars are managed by JJ Pointon; Donovan Walker and Matt Hislop are the coaches.
The players on the team are Pete Bengochea, Txema Bengochea, Taevyan Grau, Michael Heikkila, Amador Guzman, Maddex Hislop, Bryce Niblack, Logan Pointon, Jace Sartor, Erick Valencia, Donovan Walker, Kayden Yowell, and Connor Peterson.
"We played mistake free baseball," Pointon said. "The fundamentals, the focus, the attitude was all there and that is what you see from these kids; they can play. We got the bats going early and Hislop pitched very well (No runs allowed in four innings pitched).”
On Saturday morning, Winnemucca took on Ruby Mountain again in the double-elimination tournament, after Ruby Mountain eliminated Elko on Friday night.
Winnemucca played strong defense and took a 3-0 win to move on to the State Tournament in Boulder City.
“Logan (Pointon) pitched five scoreless innings, and then Txema (Bengochea) came in and closed it out; three up, three down; he struck them all out,” Pointon said. “Our defense was there to help us out today when our bats were not working.”
Winnemucca will take a small break and celebrate the Fourth of July before getting back to the grind of getting ready for the state tournament.
“We are going to take a few days off and let everybody enjoy the Fourth of July,” Pointon said. “When we get back, we are going to go down there and show them what we are all about up here in the North. If we play like we did in Carlin, I think that we can hang with any other 11 year olds.”
