On a windy afternoon Beatty hosted Tonopah and was swept in a doubleheader on Friday and then traveled to Indian Springs on Tuesday and lost a non-league game to Indian Springs.
The Muckers beat the Hornets (3-8 overall, 0-2 Division IV Central) in league action 12-2 in the first game and 19-5 in the second game. The Thunderbirds beat Beatty 11-4.
On Friday the winds in Beatty were fierce and were not conducive to playing baseball. The assistant Beatty coach, Mark Henderson, said the winds were around 45 miles per hour with gusts up to 65.
“It was a miserable day for baseball for both teams,” Henderson said. “A gust actually blew one of our pitchers off the mound.”
He says his team is young and still learning and despite the two losses to rival Tonopah, the team got better.
“Beatty’s fielding was a bright spot with only 3 errors and a double play in each game and catcher Matt Reetz only had two passed balls in the two games,” the coach said.
Tonopah coach Clark Jewett said the key to the win was solid pitching and defense.
“Our pitchers only allowed 2 earned runs in the doubleheader sweep,” Jewett said. “We had a couple of mistakes in the field that cost us the other three runs.”
Henderson agreed with Tonopah’s assessment of how the game went.
“Beatty walked too many batters, let up too many stolen bases, hit too many batters, and several wild pitches throughout the day,” he said. “Tonopah had great pitching and timely hitting through the day.”
Against the Muckers, Isias Femat did well hitting.
“He had the best batting for the Hornets, the first game he went 1-3 with an RBI and the second went 2-3 with a single, double an RBI and a run scored,” Henderson said.
Again there was a silver lining against the Thunderbirds and it was defense.
“The Hornets also played great defense with only one error and two double plays, one of them was an unassisted double play by third baseman Hugo Mendoza,” the coach said.
Again, walks killed the team’s day.
“After a good start in the first two innings we had a bad third and fifth inning accounting for nine of Indian Springs’ 11 runs,” Henderson said. “Again too many walks with some wild pitches at the wrong times. Nik Zamora came in for the last 2.1 innings and shut them down with no hits or runs, three strikeouts and three walks. He had help from outstanding unassisted double play that got him out of a little jam.”
Hornets: Nik Zamora went 1-3, 1 run, 1 RBI, and a stolen base; Jacob Henry 1-2 with an RBI and Isias Femat had 2 RBI’s.
Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@tonopahtimes.com