VVHS, Mesquite, NV-

On the hot spring day of March 24, 2022, the Virgin Valley High School Baseball team played against Valley High School at the Dawg Pound. The Dawgs played at 3:30 p.m., and in what seemed like a close game resulted in a victory for the bulldog boys 11-6.

The first inning was looking solid for Virgin Valley with a score of 2-0. Batting-wise, Kyler Sudweeks #19 hit a ball far out into the field making it to third and taking Kurt Felix #6 home. On the field, the first out was made by pitcher Jared Jensen #11 with a strikeout, and the team worked well to get the other two. Jensen had a total of 4 Ks but struggled in the next two innings he pitched as the Vikings started to drive offensively which led to Jensen’s high ERA of 4.67 for the game. The second inning began to get rough when the Valley Vikings caught up to the Dawgs in a tied score of 2-2. In the third inning, the opposing team surpassed the Bulldogs with a score of 2-5.

Although the Vikings began to take the lead, things started to look up for Virgin Valley in the fourth inning. After Jared Jensen pitched for most of the game, the coaches decided to switch up the pitcher and put in Martin Jordan #7. After this change, the teamwork of the bulldogs started to show up and show out! A pop fly hit by one of the Valley boys makes it to the outfield where Stratton Waite #8 catches it and throws the ball home to catcher Mason Montoya #24. In perfect timing, Montoya tags out the base runner trying to steal home. Two outs in one play were just what the Bulldogs needed to get fired up and take the lead. After the teams switch, the star hitter of the game, Kyler Sudweeks, hits the ball far out in the field. With this amazing hit, he was able to take loaded bases home and make it to second base; the game began to intensify. Chandon Jensen #28 takes Sudweeks home and ends the inning with a score of 7-5. After a rough start, the dawgs start to amp up their game!

Sudweeks ended the game with a .750 Batting Average and going 3 for 4 at the plate, knocking in 3 runs off of 3 hits. Kyler hit for three-quarters of the cycle as he hit a single, double, and a triple.  Chandon Jensen also batted a .500 for the game with 2 hits that brought home 2 RBIs. Braden Harris and Bryce Intagliata also had good showings at the plate with .667 and 1.00 Batting Averages.

In the fifth and sixth innings, the Dawgs held down their fort. During the fifth, Martin Jordan struck out a player, and a final run was made by Stratton Waite. Moving on to the sixth inning, Virgin Valley made two more runs. The game continued into the seventh inning to give Valley a chance of making a comeback, but they were unsuccessful. This led to a final score of 11-6 with a win for the Virgin Valley Bulldogs.

Martin Jordan finished the game pitching 4 innings and striking out 5, only allowing 1 run to help bring the Bulldogs back defensively to win the game. Freshman Mason Montoya also had an outstanding game defensively as he had a 1.00 Field Percentage with 10 chances at outs and recorded all 10 as outs. Stratton Waite struggled offensively for the day but defensively was also perfect with a 1.00 Field Percentage and ran well as the pinch runner to help score the last run during the fifth.

“I think once we get in our groove we’ll start winning and hopefully take state,” says centerfielder and pitcher Stratton Waite when asked how he thinks the team will do this season. 

The team went into a home game with high hopes against Pahrump Valley last Friday, March 25th, but left very disappointed as they met the absolutely amazing pitching of Junior Kyle McDaniel who pitched more on the level of a professional MLB pitcher, striking out 13 of the bulldogs and only allowing 2 hits as the Trojans shutout the Bulldogs 11-0. (See Article: Virgin Valley HS Baseball Team takes a beating from Pahrump Trojans). Trojans Pitcher McDaniel has a low 1.40 ERA this season.

The Ball Dawgs then knew they needed a good rebound game to bring in momentum for them going into the last week of March as they start league play on April 1st. They met up with Canyon Springs on Monday, March 28th, and found to be back on the winning edge as they beat the Pioneers 20-1. Aidan Litzenberger had a majorly impressive offensive game as he hit a home run to knock in 4 RBIs for the game and batted a 1.00 average. Stratton Waite added another home run and also went 2/3 at the plate to end the game with a .667 batting average. He also added 3 RBIs, as well as Braden Harris, knocked in the same amount of RBIs. Harris also relief-pitched with 6 strikeouts and no hits allowed and no runs scored.

The Bulldogs will face Clark at home on Wednesday, March 30th at 3:30 pm and then start League Play at home on Friday, April 1st against Sunrise Mountain. The game will be at 3:30 pm. The team is currently 9-4 with Clark being 8-5 and then Sunrise is 1-5 for their records for the season.