Sandy Valley earns first 1A Southern baseball victory

Sandy Valley didn’t play perfect baseball Friday, but that didn’t keep the Sidewinders from making school history.

A 10-8 win over visiting Indian Springs in the opener of a doubleheader earned Sandy Valley the program’s first Class 1A Southern League victory since it joined the league in 2009.

Indian Springs won the second game 18-2 in six innings at Sandy Valley Community Center, but it was a satisfying split for the Sidewinders.

“This team has come miles and miles from when we first took over a couple years ago,” coach Josh Smith said. “We’re getting more wins every year, and we’re going to keep getting better.”

Sandy Valley (11-4, 1-1) surpassed its win total from the past two seasons combined, when it totaled 10 wins and lost all 16 league games. The school, about 50 miles southwest of Las Vegas in rural Clark County, opened in August 2007.

Smith, in his second year as coach, has watched the Sidewinders become winners the old-fashioned way: hard work.

“Attitude is everything,” he said. “We have players who want to come out and practice. They practice even when I don’t hold practice, and they want to be here.”

Sandy Valley scored four runs in the second inning of the first game to take a 7-2 lead and stayed ahead thereafter.

Indian Springs (5-11, 3-1) pulled to within to 10-8 on Xavier Pena’s two-run double with one out in the top of the seventh, but he was picked off before a popout ended the game.

Westt Payne went 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI for Sandy Valley. Brandon Hughes supplied three RBIs, including a two-run single in the second inning.

In the second game, Indian Springs senior right-hander Adam Reinke pitched five solid innings to get the win. He allowed a run on five hits and three walks and struck out 10.

At the plate, Reinke was 3-for-7 with two RBIs in the doubleheader.

“It was an awakening in the second game,” he said. “Everyone just finally woke up and did what we needed to.”

Indian Springs’ Ross Guaspari was 3-for-6 with three doubles, five runs and six RBIs on the day.

Sandy Valley’s Randall Spencer went 2-for-4 in the second game.