The North Tahoe baseball team ran into some quality competition at Division I-A Sparks its opening Mount Rose League doubleheader Saturday.

The Railroaders edged the Lakers 3-1 in Game 1 of the twin bill before cruising to a 10-0 win in the second contest.

The first game was a old-fashioned pitchers’ duel between North Tahoe senior Colin Spencer and Sparks senior Jared Longland. Both teams scored a run in the second inning, while Sparks scratched across two more in the third as Longland settled in.

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The senior held North Tahoe to just three hits in the contest while striking out 11 in a complete game. Spencer allowed only four hits and struck out six.

“Colin threw well,” said North Tahoe coach Matt Drury. “We just didn’t hit the ball and didn’t get timely hitting. We had a couple situations where we had guys on but just couldn’t drive them in.”

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Spencer had two hits and Lucas Likes and Shane Christian each had one. Kieffer Putman led the Railroaders with two doubles.

In Game 2, Sparks scored four runs in the second inning, one in the third and five more in the fourth to end the game after five innings on the 10-run rule.

The Lakers mustered only three hits off of Putman, who started and pitched all but one out of the shortened game. Sophomore Mitchell Myers started for the Lakers and didn’t throw badly, Drury said, but his team committed seven errors behind him, including five in the fourth inning alone.

“The second game we fell apart defensively, and we didn’t hit. It was a pretty tough combination,” Drury said. “It was as poor of a defensive game as we’ve played in a long time. We looked like a team that’s been practicing inside. But Sparks is a good team. They had two really strong pitchers, and we just weren’t ready for it.”

The Lakers fell to 4-5 overall and 0-2 in Mount Rose League play. Sparks improved to 6-2 overall and 2-0 in league.

The North Tahoe softball team, meanwhile, dropped both games of its doubleheader at Sparks.

North Tahoe is scheduled to play crossover games against White Pine, West Wendover and Battle Mountain of the Ruby Mountain League on Friday and Saturday.