When the girls are screaming, the hits will come.

With the North Tahoe High softball team on top of the Laker dugout cheering on their male counterparts as they battled Whittell on Monday, the boys from North Tahoe put up 13 runs to Whittell’s four.

North Tahoe baseball coach Jack Bernardo said that his boys were running the bases like madmen and making plays, and that playing under sunny skies in front of a substantial home crowd reminds athletes what it’s all about.

---

---

“You understand why you play the game,” Bernardo said.

North Tahoe’s offensive effort was led by Sean Bernardo, who went 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles and two walks.

---

---

Zach Tomlinson went 3-for-4 at the plate and Chris Cahill also went 3-for-4.

The Lakers managed 14 hits as a team.

On the defensive end, junior Brian Orr pitched the game’s entirety.

“He pitched a really good game,” Bernardo said.

Orr only gave up four hits and two walks in the game while striking out nine Warrior batters.

After a tumultuous start that saw the program canceled and then reinstated under independent status after too few players showed up or were initially academically ineligible, North Tahoe’s season is looking pretty good going into the twilight of the year.

Bernardo said that since the season’s rocky start, he has had 11 reliable players who show up to every practice and every game.

Bernardo counts himself lucky that he hasn’t had any injuries this season, but with no seniors, his core of juniors as well as talented players like Tomlinson and Cahill ” both sophomores ” will all be back again next season.

But for now, North Tahoe is looking to reschedule its last game of the season against Loyalton, originally slated for Wednesday but postponed due to the day’s nasty weather.

While the game may have to be played in Loyalton next week, Bernardo hopes it can be played on Friday in Tahoe Vista, giving the Lakers one more chance to play in front of a home crowd that reminds ballplayers what the game is all about.

“It was a good atmosphere,” Bernardo said of Monday’s game.