The White Pine High School baseball team has jumped out to a 6-0 record for its best start to a season since the shortened 2020 campaign when they won their first seven games before the rest of the season was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Bobcats won the Alamo Tournament in the championship game over divisional foe Lincoln County, 10-0, in a shutout mercy rule effort on March 9. Senior Ryan Walker got the start and went three innings while scattering one hit and a couple of walks. Freshman Maddox Sedlacek threw the final inning and struck out two, along with giving up a hit.
Offensively, junior Dylan Cessford went 3-for-3 at the plate with five RBIs and added two of the 14 stolen bases in the win. Sophomore Jacob Hall, who went 0-for-1 with two walks and three runs, led the team on Saturday with four stolen bases.
It was part of the first two weeks where victories came in all sorts of ways. From two victories in the final at-bat to getting big offensive performances, it has been huge for the Bobcats in the early going before league action begins.
“As a whole, I feel like they come together when it kind of gets a little (tight),” said Bobcats head coach Quinn Ewell. “There’s been a few times they’ve been down in the game and they’re able to really group together as a team and find and scratch for the runs to get the win. It’s really good to see it in the close games. They’re not wanting to give up, they just finish the game.
“It’s good to see their resilience.”
To begin the season on March 1, White Pine put up three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to win 6-5 against Excel Christian of Sparks, Nev. in walk-off fashion. Seven days later, the late game heroics returned as the Bobcats put up two runs against Pahranagat Valley to win 7-6.
In addition to the 10-0 championship win, White Pine faced Lincoln County one day before and posted a 5-run second inning, en route to a 7-3 victory.
Furthermore, the offensive fireworks came alive hours before the championship game when the Bobcats put up 13 runs in the fourth inning to run-rule Green Valley Christian 18-3. White Pine got 18 runs on just nine hits but took advantage of seven errors and five walks. In that game, Sedlacek and Hall each went 3-for-4 and combined for five runs, nine RBIs and six of the team’s 23 stolen bases.
So far this season Sedlacek is hitting .625 (10-for-19) with four doubles, nine RBIs and nine runs. Hall is at .588 (10-for-17) with three doubles, nine RBIs and eight runs. Senior Casetin Gubler has the team’s lone home run, which came in a 9-1 victory over Yerington on March 1.
Green Valley Christian and Lincoln County are two of the seven teams White Pine will be facing in 2A Southern League play this season. Green Valley Chrisitan, along with Adelson, are two new teams to the league in 2024.
Ewell, who has been the baseball head coach since 2013, said his players have to compete at their capabilities each opportunity if the team wants to reach their peak.
“The thing is, we know that any team can really beat you on any given day,” he said. “So, we have to make sure that the team is playing to their ability and not playing (down) to the other teams. Lake Mead, they’ve been tough the last few years and I expect them to be tough again. Needles has pretty much their whole team coming back and Lincoln, if you let up on them, they’ll beat you. If you decide to take them easy, they always improve and then are ready for the fight.”
The six wins are more than half of the 11 wins the Bobcats got all of last season. White Pine did not receive their sixth victory until April 7, 2023. This season, it came one month sooner on March 9.
Overall, White Pine went 11-12 and 8-6 in league play, good for fourth before losing in the regional semifinals.
Ewell said the victories to begin the season is a result of the returning players from a season ago.
“We didn’t lose any pitchers last year, so I feel like we should have some strong pitching throughout this year, experience wise,” Ewell said. “Our expectation is that we just continue to get better every week and keep working on progressing. I mean, our big thing is we let the winning take care of itself and as long as we are progressing forward and getting better.”
So far, Walker is 2-0 in three appearances this season and eight innings of work. He has yet to allow an earned run while striking out 10 hitters.
Having that pitching down the stretch is going to be vital, especially when it comes to needing that depth when the calendar reaches mid-April and the playoffs are right around the corner.
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