Friday, May 16, 2003 | 10:01 a.m.
Reno baseball coach Pete Savage declared this week that the days of great Southern Nevada title runs are gone.
His Huskies backed that up in Thursday's opening day of the 4A State baseball tournament, running their unbeaten streak to 36 games and serving notice that a North contender is poised to make a serious run at just its third state crown in the past 19 years.
The North's top seed, Reno, opened the tournament by downing Palo Verde (N-1), 3-2, Thursday morning at Burkholder Field. The Huskies followed by surviving a tense 4-3 evening contest with Silverado (SR-2) to move within two wins of their first state title since 1984.
Earlier this week, Savage told the Reno Gazette-Journal, "We certainly respect what the South has done, but the days of (coach) Rodger Fairless and Green Valley and his great run of state titles is over. There are just so many schools down there. The talent is spread out. They throw up high schools down there like we throw up 7-Elevens."
Reno began its quest by coming back from a late deficit against Silverado.
"We get a break here or there and we're in the winners' bracket," Silverado coach Brian Whitaker said. "Our kids played hard and gave a great effort."
Down 2-1 with two outs and two on in the fifth inning, Reno rallied to take the lead when Brady Dolan lofted a high pop-up off Dan Morris down the right field line that two Skyhawks could not catch. Two runners scored and Dolan reached third.
The Huskies tacked on another run in the sixth inning on Steve May's RBI single before facing a determined Silverado attack in the seventh. The Skyhawks loaded the bases with one out and pushed across a run on a wild pitch. With the tying run at third, Reno's Jeff Schoenbachler retired Casey Coon and Wes Johnson on hard grounders to close the game.
"It was (Jeff's) ballgame to pitch and I think he showed what he's made of by wanting to finish it," Savage said.
Green Valley is on a collision course with Reno after getting through a pair of strange Thursday games. The Sunrise top seed opened by surviving a seventh-inning scare from Carson (N-2), 3-2, before besting Sunset top seed Centennial, 15-10, in the nightcap.
In the second inning, the Gators took a 9-0 lead by banging out 10 hits, including Kyle Price's three-run homer, to apparently take control with ace lefty Ryan Tabor pitching. Centennial took advantage of some Green Valley errors to fight off the mercy rule, then climbed into the game at 13-10 on Bryce Massanari's sixth-inning grand slam. Massanari finished 3-for-4 with two homers and six RBIs.
"I've got a feeling that's how this state tournament's going to be," Gators coach Nick Garritano said. "I never felt comfortable until that last out was made."
The Bulldogs face Galena (N-3), a 6-4 losers' bracket winner against Carson, today at Burkholder Field at 3 p.m. At 3 at CCSN, Silverado plays the other elimination game against Bishop Gorman (SS-2), which rallied in the seventh inning to eliminate Palo Verde, 4-3,. At 6 p.m., Green Valley awaits the Centennial/Galena winner and Reno takes on the Silverado/Gorman winner.
The 3 p.m. games are rematches of Thursday contests. Silverado downed the Gaels, 13-3, in five innings, while Centennial got an RBI triple from Danny Ramirez in the bottom of the seventh to defeat the Grizzlies, 5-4.
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