TRUCKEE, Calif. — The Truckee High School baseball team kicked off its season two weekends ago competing in a preseason tournament against other area high schools in northern Nevada.

With the high school field in Truckee under several feet of snow, the 2017 team has been forced to conduct all practices inside the school gym. These non-league games are extremely valuable to Coach JR Murphy and his staff as they get to see the team perform on a field for the first time this season.

They also give the players a chance to finally field a ground ball on grass, see a true fly ball and step into the batter s box facing live pitching.

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Truckee started off their non-league schedule against the Douglas Tigers in Minden on March 9. Things started off good for the Wolverines with senior Connor Bullion leading off the game with a double to left field.

The nice start was short lived, however, as Bullion was thrown out at third while tagging up on a fly ball to right as the Tigers quickly got two outs and prevented the Wolverines from scoring in the first inning.

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Senior Will Belden started on the mound for Truckee and struggled with his control early in the first inning, allowing the Tigers to put up five runs early, but came back strong in the second and third inning not surrendering a run.

In all Belden went 3 innings, giving up 3 hits, 5 runs and 5 walks, while recording 1 strikeout for his first outing of the season.

The rest of the game was a little sloppy for the Wolverines defensively, and they were only able to muster 4 hits, two of which came from senior Max Wingard, against Douglas and lost 10-0 in 5 innings.

The Wolverines looked to bounce back March 10 against Fallon in the first game of a double header . And bounce back they did. The Wolverines pounded 15 hits en route to a 8-2 win over the Greenwave.

Derek Laferriere, Belden, Jamie Parisi and Jack Englert each had 2 hits, and Connor Bullion added 3 of his own.

That nice offensive outburst along with a strong pitching performance from Junior Conor Pugh got the Wolverines their first victory of the season.

Pugh went 5 innings, giving up 6 hits, 2 runs and 5 walks for his first varsity win. Sophomore Marcus Bellon came in for the final two innings and kept the Greenwave batters at bay to preserve the win. Bellon went 2 innings, allowing 3 hits and recording 1 strikeout.

In the nightcap, Truckee took the field against the 4A Reed Raiders. Truckee’s bats stayed hot, jumping on top of the Raiders in the top of the first with three quick runs. Reed battled back in the bottom of the first with two runs of their own.

The Wolverines’ scoring continued by adding three in the top of the second and one run each in the third and fourth innings. But the Raiders would not go away, scoring two runs in the second, third and fourth innings and eventually taking the lead in the bottom of the sixth and defeating the Wolverines 11-8.

Truckee was led by Seniors Jayden Commendatore, who went 3-4 with 3 RBIs, and Englert, who went 2-3 and 1 RBI, along with Parisi, a junior, who also went 3-4 at the plate. Laferriere, a sophomore, added 2 hits. Although the Wolverines lost the game, they ended with 11 hits and gave the high-powered Raiders all they could handle that evening. 

The final game of the weekend had the Wolverines taking on the North Valley Panthers. The Wolverines took advantage of 11 walks and strung together 8 hits to take down the Panthers 13-8 in their final non-league game.

Senior Bullion got the win, going 4 innings giving up 2 hits, 4 runs and 6 walks, along with 5 strikeouts. Sophomore Bellon came in to secure the win, pitching the final 2 innings and giving up 3 hits and 2 runs, while notching one strikeout.

The Wolverines were led at the plate by Commendatore, going 1-2 with 2RBIs, Junior Parisi, 2-3, 3 RBIs, Junior Gary Grosjean, 3-4, and Junior Tyler Ferrera, who went 1-3 with a 2-out, bases loaded double that cleared the bases and put the game out of reach for the Panthers.

Truckee went 2-2 in non-league play, scoring 29 runs and collecting 39 hits in the 4 games.

The Wolverines were scheduled to start league play this past week against Fernley, playing a three-game set Friday and Saturday.

This article was provided by Truckee High varsity baseball coach JR Murphy.