Sierra Vista ousted from Legion tourney

On the one hand, Sierra Vista baseball coach Levi Gill was disappointed to see his team’s season come to an end Tuesday night. On the other, he felt fortunate that the Lions even made the postseason.

Ryan Bush drew a bases-loaded walk in the 10th inning, forcing home the winning run to lift Reno over the defending champion Lions 7-6 in the American Legion state tournament at UNLV’s Wilson Stadium.

Though Sierra Vista won the 2010 tourney and went on the play in the American Legion World Series, Gill said he knew his young squad would struggle this year. The Lions just snuck into the postseason, grabbing the seventh seed in the eight-team state tournament with a 14-8 league record.

“We’ve got a younger group of guys this year,” Gill said. “We knew we were going to go through some growing pains. Hopefully we’ll get our young guys developed so we can do something better than going two and out next year.”

The loss spoiled a frantic rally for Sierra Vista (31-18), which trailed 6-1 heading into the eighth inning.

With two outs, Connor Klein was hit by a pitch. Tyler Burdett and Jacob Findlay followed with RBI doubles, and Cole Crosby eventually tied the score at 6 with a two-run double.

“We’ve talked to our guys about playing one pitch at a time,” Gill said. “They did a good job of that in the late innings. They competed.”

But Lions reliever Tyler Condie, who had held the sixth-seeded Knights scoreless for three innings, allowed a one-out double to Garrett Hampson and issued back-to-back walks to Tyler McElroy and Anthony Hascheff. Condie’s 3-and-2 pitch to Bush was high, scoring Hampson from third base.

The win lifted Reno (40-13) into a third-round game, where it will play either Rancho or Silverado at 8 p.m. today.

Burdett and Findlay each went 2-for-5 with a double and an RBI to lead Sierra Vista.

Hampson and Kellen Richards each had three hits for the Knights, who jumped ahead early with two runs in the second inning and two more in the third.

Silverado 6, Rancho 4 — David Kuzma pitched seven shutout innings, and the third-seeded Hawks held off a late rally to upset the No. 2 Rams.

Silverado (20-8-1) will play either Reno or Rancho (33-9-1) in the semifinals at 5 p.m. Thursday.

The Hawks jumped ahead with a run in the first inning and then took a 3-0 lead on Anthony Ford’s two-run single in the fifth.

But Rancho finally chased Kuzma with three straight hits to open the eighth, and Zak Qualls made it 3-1 with an RBI single up the middle.

After the Hawks tacked on three runs in the top of the ninth, Rancho again rallied. Michael Cruz led off the bottom of the inning with a home run, Dylan Pletsch added an RBI double, and the Rams made it 6-4 when Brandon Pletsch drove in a run with a fielder’s choice.

But Silverado reliever Mark Janosik worked out of the jam to preserve the win.