DIVISION I-A BASEBALL: Churchill County rallies to top Crusaders

One minute, Faith Lutheran’s baseball team appeared to be headed for its third consecutive state championship. Moments later, the dejected Crusaders departed the field with a heartbreaking loss.

Trae Workman went 3-for-5 with a double and two RBIs to lead Churchill County, which repelled a frantic Faith Lutheran rally en route to an 11-8 victory in the championship game of the Class I-A state tournament at Las Vegas High on Saturday.

The Crusaders scored five runs in the sixth inning to tie the score at 8, only to give up the winning runs in the seventh.

“The kids showed tremendous resilience,” said Faith Lutheran coach Blair Neagle, whose squad forced a second game by steamrolling the Greenwave 16-0 earlier Saturday. “They fought to the end, and I’m very proud of them.”

Churchill County coach Lester deBraga said irony played a role in his team’s victory, noting that the Greenwave fell to Faith Lutheran in the 2014 championship game.

“My hat’s off to (the Crusaders),” he said. “Ever since they beat us last year, we have strived to be like them. We’ve worked for a year to come back and be like them and compete with them.”

Churchill County scored a run in the second inning and jumped on Crusaders starter Kyle Poser for three more in the third to go ahead 4-0.

Faith Lutheran cut the deficit to 4-2 before Riley Williams belted a two-run homer over the right-field fence in the fifth to give the Greenwave a 6-2 lead.

When Joe Pyle extended the lead to 8-3 by narrowly reaching base on an infield single in the sixth, Churchill County appeared to have the win in hand.

But the Crusaders loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the inning, then got RBI hits from Chad Jones, Josh Harmonay and Brandon Davis to tie the score at 8.

Neagle’s squad had all the momentum, but the coach knew he was running out of pitchers. He was forced to go with Jones, who won Saturday’s first game, in the seventh.

“We were out of arms, but the guys we used came in to do battle,” said Neagle, who used six pitchers.

When Dalton Frank lined a single up the middle to open the Greenwave seventh, deBraga had a hunch that good things were coming.

“We knew we needed to get the leadoff guy on,” deBraga said. “We had the meat of the order coming up after that. We not only got one run, we got three.”

Tyler Bagby and Branden Beeghly had RBI hits in the inning. Teammate Dylan Jabines limited the Crusaders to one hit in the bottom of the inning and got Jones to ground out for the final out, starting a celebration on the mound.

Harmonay and Davis each went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs for Faith Lutheran.

Faith Lutheran 16, Churchill County 0 — The Crusaders forced the second game by making the most of 16 hits and seven Greenwave errors in the five-inning opener.

Zach Trageton went 3-for-4 with a double and two RBIs for Faith Lutheran, which loaded the bases in each of the first three innings and took control with six runs in the second and six in the third.

Blake Giuliani went 2-for-3 with a double and four RBIs for the Crusaders, and Jones tossed a three-hitter.