For the second straight day, the Western Nevada College baseball took more than a game to light up the scoreboard. But like the Wildcats have done all season, they didn’t allow one subpar performance lead to two.
The Wildcats of Carson City concluded their regular season with a 5-2 victory over College of Southern Idaho on Saturday in Twin Falls, Idaho.
Freshman Max Karnos threw five shutout innings and Jake Bennett knocked in two runs for the Wildcats, who finished runner-up to Salt Lake in the Scenic West Athletic Conference. CSI won the opener, 5-0, behind the five-hit pitching of Grant Kukuk.
But the Golden Eagles were unable to complete what every team before them had been unable to do: sweep a doubleheader from WNC.
Karnos gave up four hits and two earned runs in 5 2/3 innings to earn the victory. He struck out five and walked three. Jeremy Alderman completed a WNC victory for the second straight day by blanking the Golden Eagles over the remaining 1 1/3 innings. He fanned two.
In the fifth inning, Alex Fife’s RBI double scored Christian Stolo to put WNC ahead 1-0. Jake Bennett followed with a two-run single, pushing the Wildcats in front, 3-0. Bennett advanced to second on the throw home and eventually scored on a wild pitch.
Tony Roque scored an unearned run in the sixth, increasing WNC’s edge to 5-0. Fife and Roque each finished with two hits to lead the Wildcats.
Stolo, Roque, Connor Klein, Connor Harber and Austin Andrews had the only hits off Kukuk in the opener.
Kyle Pruneau started for WNC on the mound and gave up three runs in two innings. He fanned five.
The Wildcats took the season series from CSI, 5-3.
WNC finished the regular season with a 36-16 overall record, including 21-11 in the SWAC. The Wildcats will play College of Southern Nevada at 2:30 p.m. in Thursday in Salt Lake City as they begin defense of the Region 18 Tournament title they won a year ago.