AMERICAN LEGION: Las Vegas Cougars’ bats hot in 11-1 win over Silverado

The Las Vegas Cougars’ goal was to set the tone early, and start the American Legion state baseball tournament with a bang. Thanks to a five-run fifth inning Saturday night against the Silverado Hawks at UNLV’s Wilson Stadium, the Cougars opened the tournament with an 11-1 victory in seven innings.

“We all put the bats together, we had good pitching, no errors, so that was good,” said the Cougars’ Christian Herrera, who went 2-for-2 with a double and two runs scored. “Our goal was to just go out and play and not worry about any pressure, just play our game.”

Trailing 1-0 early, the Cougars (18-14) took a 2-1 lead after four, and then broke the game open by batting around in the fifth inning, and manufacturing runs.

With one out, Jake McLean walked, Herrera was hit by a pitch and Dru Pippin walked to load the bases. After McLean scored on a wild pitch, Herrera came in when Ryan Murphy grounded out to third. Ethan Stephens’ RBI-single brought home Pippin, who later scored when Canon Campbell stroked a single to right field. Ryan Kiernan’s single brought in Kyle Rossman, giving the Cougars a 7-1 lead.

Starting pitcher Owen Hallett earned the win after scattering nine hits and striking out one over 6⅔ innings. After giving up an RBI single in the second inning, Hallett retired 15 of the next 19 batters he faced.

“It’s always great to come out hot, when you get that momentum going you can stay hot throughout the tournament,” Stephens said. “Once we get in a groove and start scoring some runs, we really put it together and get a big inning and you can’t catch up from there.”

The Cougars added three more in the sixth, and ended the game by virtue of the mercy rule with a run in the bottom of the seventh.

Murphy was 2-for-4 with a double, two runs scored and two RBIs, Kiernan finished 2-for-5 with one run and an RBI, and Rossman was 2-for-3 with two runs and two RBIs for the Cougars. Nine of the 10 batters they sent to the plate got a hit.

Tyler Paasche went 2-for-3 with the lone run scored for Silverado (14-12). Sean Graves and Blake Zorne each went 2-for-3, and Austin Whittaker took the loss.

Southern Nevada Blue Sox 26, Post 8 Rams 2 — The Southern Nevada Blue Sox, comprised of players from high school state champion Basic, used a 26-hit attack to open the tournament with a blowout win over Post 8, which is made up of players from Rancho.

Jack Wold went 5-for-6 with two doubles, a home run, four runs scored and six RBIs for the Blue Sox. Teammate Roger Riley was 4-for-5 with two doubles, five runs and an RBI, and Garrett Giles was 4-for-6 with a double, three runs and three RBIs to lead the Blue Sox (46-7).

Blue Sox pitcher Trevor Berg silenced the Rams (11-21), scattering two hits over 6⅔ innings, and allowed just two earned runs. He struck out eight and did not walk a batter.