SPRING PREVIEW: Pahrump Valley Trojans eye upcoming season

Trojan athletes are preparing to kick off their spring seasons on Thursday, March 2.

Pahrump Valley will be competing in baseball, softball, track & field and boys golf this upcoming season.

Last year, all four Trojan teams made postseason appearances.

Baseball:

Head coach Roy Uyeno led the Trojans to a 19-8 regular season record and an 8-2 league record in the 3A Mountain league.

Both of Pahrump Valley’s two league losses came against league champion Boulder City Eagles.

The Trojans had a disappointing end to their 2022 season.

After defeating Clark to open the playoffs, they then moved on to face the No. 1 team from the Desert league in the Virgin Valley Bulldogs.

The Trojans held a 7-2 lead going into the bottom of the sixth inning.

The Bulldogs would add four runs in their half of the sixth inning, then another run in the bottom of the seventh inning to send the game to extra innings.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Bulldogs would get a walk-off hit to win the game 8-7 and move on to the next round.

With the loss, the Trojans were sent to the consolation bracket, where they would run into Boulder City, who would come away with a 4-2 victory, knocking Pahrump out of the playoffs.

Uyeno will have most of his everyday starters returning this year. Only four starters – Zach Cuellar, Henry Amaya, Colby Tillery and Dallton Norland – from the 2022 season were graduating seniors.

Pahrump will have four of their top five batting average leaders from the 2022 season returning, including senior shortstop and pitcher Kyle McDaniels.

McDaniels led the Trojans in nearly every offensive hitting category. He led the team in batting average (.548), hits (51), runs batted in (41) and doubles (13). He tied for the team-lead in home runs (4) and was second on the team in runs scored (50).

McDaniels’ middle-infield partner and fellow senior, second baseman James Metscher is also returning for the Trojans.

Metscher was second on the team last season with a .455 batting average and led the team with 55 runs scored.

Both McDaniel and Metscher have already signed their letters of intent to play baseball at the next level following graduation this year.

Pahrump will open their season on Tuesday, March 7 when the team travels to Moapa Valley to take on the Pirates. The Trojans won the only meeting between these two teams last season 14-13 when they hosted the Pirates.

The Trojans will play in two tournaments this season back-to-back. The first tournament will be Monday and Tuesday, March 13-14 at Durango High School.

The second tournament will take place Wednesday through Saturday, March 15-18 at River Valley High School in Mohave Valley, Arizona.

Softball:

The Lady Trojans will be heading into the 2023 season with a new head coach. First year coach Veronica Montanez will be leading the team this season.

Former head coach Sam Charles guided the Lady Trojans to a 8-17 record and a 6-6 record in league play during the 2022 season.

This performance helped the Lady Trojans get the No. 5 seed in the southern regional tournament.

Pahrump Valley pulled off the first-round upset over the No. 2 seeded team from the Desert league, defeating them 17-6 on SLAM’s home field.

The Lady Trojans had lost to SLAM twice during the regular season by a combined score of 19-13.

Montanez and the Lady Trojans will kick off their 2023 season with a tournament in Mesquite on Friday and Saturday, March 3-4.

Their first game of the season will be against the Elko Indians at 10:30 a.m. that Friday.

Track & Field:

The Trojans’ track & field team will have a new head coach this season. Dan Nagle has been named the head coach going into the 2023 season.

Former head coach Fred Schmidt led the track & field team last season to multiple first-place finishes in the 3A Southern regional events.

The girls and the boys teams both finished in the top-5 at the 2022 southern regionals held at Moapa Valley High School.

Senior Devin Varlack had three top-3 finishes at regionals. His best finish was second place in the 1600-meter race with a personal record time of 4:36.16.

On the girls side, senior Jessica Kern won first place in both the discus and shot put events. Her discus throw distance of 102 feet, 9 inches was nearly four feet further than her closest opponent.

Sophomore Lillian McGhee set a personal record of 16 feet, 1 ¼ inches in the long jump to capture first place in her regional event.

In the state competition, the Trojans had multiple athletes win medals.

Kern took home two silver medals, one in the shot put and one in the discus. She set personal records in both events.

Elizabeth Shockley, now a senior at Pahrump Valley, took home a bronze medal in the discus event with a throw of 91 feet, 8 inches.

The girls 4x200 relay race team finished in second place. The team of Dakota Fodge, Dakota Fernandes, Lillian McGhee and Payton Weaver finished with a time of 1:51.02.

Coach Nagle and the rest of the track & field team will begin their season on Friday, March 3 with a meet at Liberty High School. The events will begin at 4:30 p.m.

Boys golf:

Head coach Bob Hopkins led the boys golf team to a Nevada Southern regional championship last spring.

With their regional championship, the Trojans made their eighth consecutive appearance in the state tournament.

In the regional tournament, all six of the Pahrump Valley golfers finished in the top-10, including two golfers in the top three spots.

Kasen Moore finished in second place of the tournament and ended with a score of 180 over the 2-day event.

Carter Nygaard finished in third place for the tournament with a total score of 194.

The two golfers helped guide the Trojans to the championship with a team total score of 774, winning the regional tournament by 73 strokes.

In the state tournament, the Trojans finished in second place with a team score of 700 over the two days. They finished 26 strokes behind state champions Truckee High School.

Moore was the only Trojan to finish the tournament in the top five. He ended his championship run with a 2-day score of 167.

Coach Hopkins and his golfers will start their season on Wednesday, March 8 with a tournament in Needles, California beginning at 11 a.m.

You can follow along with the baseball and softball seasons by checking out maxpreps.com. The track & field results can be found by going to athletic.net.

Contact sports writer/editor Danny Smyth at dsmyth@pvtimes.com. Follow @the_dannysmyth on Twitter.