The bases were loaded, with two outs, in the top of the sixth inning with the Trojans leading 5-2. The league playoffs were on the line and senior Josh Ferrer had a 2-2 count on the Mojave batter.
The winning run for Mojave was aboard. The next pitch was a strike to retire the side. The Trojans (19-11 overall, 10-0 Class 3A Sunset League) hung on for the 5-2 win over Mojave and won the league title May 4.
“If I remember correctly, on the 2-2 count I threw a fastball on the outside corner to get the swing and the miss,” Ferrer said.
The Mojave game was a must-win situation for the Trojans if they wanted to have home field advantage for the first game of the playoffs as the number one seed.
In the game, the Trojans scored four runs in the first and one in the third inning.
Garrett Lucas had a double. Parker Hart, John MacDonald and Anthony Charles each had two hits. Dylan Grossell had one hit and two RBIs.
Hart feels his team is the team to beat in the playoffs.
“We are starting to string hits together consistently and even our outs are loud outs.
According to Nevadapreps, the last time the Trojans won the league championship was in 2001. The Trojans went to the playoffs in 2015, 2014 and 2013. The last time Pahrump went to state was in 2007. The sources only went back to 2001.
Brian Hayes said his team has been playing good baseball.
“We haven’t been playing some great teams, but our pitching has been consistent, our defense has been improving and our hitting is getting there,” the coach said. “We are pretty excited to see how we will do next week. This is the first game our boys have played in a while that meant something. And we were kind of excited to see how they will do. They stepped up to the challenge.”
His team had that one inning where team members hit the ball well, but then, he said, it “kind of stopped.”
“We met our goal of five runs,” Hayes said.
The Trojans faced a 13-13 Virgin Valley squad on Tuesday. The game was past deadline. Virgin Valley was 1-1 against Pahrump, beating them in March 12-4 but losing to the Trojans in tournament play 8-0 at the Cowboy Classic.
The tournament is not a single elimination tournament. Win or lose, the Trojans will continue playing on Wednesday. If they lose, there is a loser bracket.
Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com