DIVISION I-A BASEBALL: Eagles save Howell’s arm, use his big bat to rout Elko

Boulder City baseball coach Bobby Reese decided the roll the dice Thursday and not start ace Tanner Howell on the mound in his team’s state-tournament opener.

Howell’s bat made sure the gamble paid off.

The senior hit a pair of home runs and drove in seven to lead the Eagles to a 16-5 win over Northern Region champion Elko in the Division I-A state tournament at the College of Southern Nevada.

“We came ready to hit today, because we know that’s our strong suit,” said Howell, who finished 2-for-3 with four runs. “We saw a fastball, a pretty good fastball, but we like the fastball and we jumped on it.”

Howell launched a two-run homer down the left-field line in the top of the first to put the Eagles up for good. He added a grand slam in the second and had a sacrifice fly in the fifth.

Boulder City (23-9) plays Faith Lutheran (28-3) in the winners’ bracket final at 9 a.m. Friday at CSN. The loser will play Elko (29-4) at 11:30 a.m. Elko stayed alive with an 11-5 win over Truckee (17-19) on Thursday.

“It was a gamble, there’s no doubt about it,” Reese said. “But I truly felt if we threw Tanner out of the gate, we were playing for second. We’ve seen Faith. They have three (pitchers) that are as good as anybody at any level. Tanner gives us a chance.”

After Howell had hit two home runs, the Indians chose to walk him in his third plate appearance in the fourth, but cleanup hitter Bill Barth made them pay.

Barth smacked a three-run homer to left center to put Boulder City up 9-1. Barth added a solo homer down the left-field line in the fifth, and No. 5 hitter D.J. Koopman got one up into the wind in the seventh, and the ball carried over the wall in left center for a three-run homer.

“The ball was flying out of this park today, that’s for sure, with that wind blowing out,” Reese said.

The heart of Boulder City’s order — Howell, Barth and Koopman — combined to go 10-for-13 with a double, five homers and 14 RBIs.

“We played great today,” Howell said. “We came out to hit the ball.”

Faith Lutheran 15, Truckee 1 — Brandon Johnson fired a one-hitter, and the Crusaders jumped on the Wolverines early to win the opener in five innings.

Caleb Summerhays hit a three-run homer to left in the first to get things going.

“I think it helped everybody relax a little bit,” Faith Lutheran coach Blair Neagle said of Summerhays’ blast.

The Crusaders added 10 runs in the third and rolled from there. Eight of the nine starters had at least one hit for Faith Lutheran, which has relied on strong pitching all season.

“It’s nice to see everybody get hot at the right time,” Neagle said. “Our pitching’s been pretty good all year, so that’s kind of what we expected.”

Johnson fanned six in the first three innings and set down the first nine men he faced before he was forced to take a long break in the dugout during the 10-run inning.

He wasn’t as sharp when he came back out, walking the leadoff man Aaron Pado and allowing a single to Andy McKechnie. Pado came home on a double play, and Johnson set down the side in order in the fifth to close the game out. He finished with eight strikeouts.

“He’s been like that all year,” Neagle said. “Our four starters have been outstanding all year.”

Neagle said Brenden Meyer would start today against Boulder City, with Erich Uelmen set to pitch the third game of the tournament.

“We’re going to go with the same rotation that we kept,” Neagle said. “If we can stay in our routine, we’ll be very lucky.”