DIVISION I BASEBALL: Quick-strike Wolves end drought
RENO — Basic’s fans, alumni and players have waited 29 years for a state baseball championship.
The Wolves quickly made it clear Saturday that the drought was over.
Basic scored five runs in the bottom of the first inning and rolled to a 9-1 win over Centennial for the Division I state championship at Bishop Manogue High.
“You put a team away like that in the first inning,” senior shortstop Ryne Nelson said. “Five runs like that in the first inning is killer to the other team.”
Jack Wold had the big blow in the inning, turning on the first pitch he saw and lining it over the fence in right field for a three-run homer that put the Wolves (36-4) up for good.
“I knew it was going to be good when he did that,” Nelson said. “I knew the game was going to be good there.”
Roger Riley added an RBI single, and J.J. Smith had an RBI double in the inning as the Wolves took control.
That allowed senior right-hander Trever Berg to settle in on the mound. He went the distance, allowing an unearned run on seven hits. He struck out four and walked two to get the win.
“My offense put up runs, so I could just pitch to contact and trust my defense,” Berg said.
Centennial’s run came in the second inning when Jake Rogers hit a one-out triple and eventually scored on Berg’s errant pickoff throw to first.
Centennial (29-11) threatened in the seventh, loading the bases with one out. But Berg induced a 4-6-3 double play to end the game.
“He pitched good,” Nelson said. “He’s always thrown strikes and let his defense work for him. And we had his back today.”
Berg is one of 10 seniors on the Basic roster that helped turn the program around. The Wolves went 13-21 in 2013, the senior class’s freshman season.
“Trever’s been talking about this for a long time, of wanting to be in the spotlight here, and he showed us exactly what he could do,” Basic coach Scott Baker said.
The group of seniors set a goal of a state championship before they even got to high school.
“It’s a dream,” Smith said. “Night after night, work on the field and grinding and grinding, we knew we were going to do it. It was just going to take time.
“Our dream came true, and the five years became a reality.”
Wold was 3-for-4, and Garrett Giles and Trent Bixby each drove in two runs for Basic, which claimed its first state championship since 1987.
Nelson said bringing home the title for all of the school’s alumni made it even more special.
“It’s crazy,” Nelson said.. “You look around and everybody’s crying. You can just tell how much it means to everybody.”
Baker, in his fifth year as coach, was part of the school’s last state championship team.
“I’m just so happy for the Henderson community, the administration at Basic, the players, their families,” he said. “They bought into something here that was hard to buy into. It’s a hard recipe to buy into what we’re doing, but they did and we brought it home.”
Centennial coach Charlie Cerrone said the early hole was too much to overcome. But the Bulldogs, who have just three senior starters, hope to build on what they accomplished this season.
“There are a lot of building blocks back, but like we told our kids, you never can tell,” Cerrone said. “You’ve got to be lucky, you’ve got to be healthy to get to games like this. And we’ll keep battling and keep working to try to do it again.”
Contact prep sports editor Damon Seiters at 702-380-4587 or dseiters@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DamonSeiters