3A STATE: Churchill County ends Boulder City run

MESQUITE — Boulder City’s baseball team thought it already had faced Churchill County’s ace in the Class 3A state tournament. Colton Oney pitched like another one Saturday.

The Greenwave junior tossed a shutout with 10 strikeouts, and went 2-for-3 with an RBI, as Churchill County cruised to a 5-0 win over the Eagles in the tournament title game at Virgin Valley.

“They threw two really good pitchers at us that really just did a nice job, and that’s all you can say,” said Boulder City coach Bill Strachan, whose team won 12 of its final 14 games — with both of the losses coming to Churchill County. “I don’t think it was anything poor that we did; we just saw two stud pitchers. They were really tough. All the credit to them.”

Oney held Boulder City (18-13) to six hits — all singles — and four walks, and only three Eagles runners advanced past second base.

“I was just hitting my spots,” Oney said. “I wasn’t really worried about striking them out because I knew if they put it in play, my defense would make the plays. I didn’t do anything special, but the defense played really good.”

Churchill County (27-10) got all the scoring it needed with a two-run third inning and added three runs in the fifth.

Frank DeBraga reached base on a mishandled bunt that scored Scott Hutchings from third base for the first run of the third, and Zach Harvey came home on an RBI single by Oney.

Roman Hucks added a stolen base and a run in the fifth inning, and Alonzo Williams and J.J. Boyle each added a run for the Greenwave, who benefited from three Eagles errors and six walks.

“I told them, if we had won it all, I wouldn’t be any prouder of them,” Strachan said. “We’re getting comments from around our league that we were a different team the second time through, and as a coach, you can’t hear anything better than that.”

Strachan credited much of the team’s late turnaround to seniors Jack LaMarca and Nick Morelli. “The best leaders I’ve had in years,” Strachan said. “It’s not some magic thing; we just kept plugging along, and everybody kept buying in, doing the things we taught them.”

LaMarca relieved starter Tanner Howell in the second, pitching two innings with three strikeouts, three walks and two unearned runs, before handing off the ball to Aubrey Wrightsman.