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Western Nevada College found its offense just in time Friday, preventing College of Southern Nevada from taking over first place in the Scenic West Athletic Conference.
The Wildcats plated two fifth-inning runs to tie the score and then tallied five runs after two were out in the sixth to pull out a 9-4 baseball victory to gain a doubleheader split at John L. Harvey Field in Carson City.

The start of a pivotal Scenic West Athletic Conference baseball series between first-place Western Nevada College and second-place College of Southern Nevada begins Thursday, one day earlier than originally scheduled.

The four-game series begins at 4 p.m. Thursday at John L. Harvey Field in Carson City. On Friday, the teams will play at doubleheader at noon and then conclude the series with a single game at noon Saturday.

The eighth was a special inning for Western Nevada College's baseball team on Saturday in Carson City. WNC scored five runs in the eight to pull away from Mount Hood Community College of Gresham, Ore., in a 10-3 win in the opener of a nonconference baseball doubleheader at John L. Harvey Field.

A one-hit shutout by freshman pitcher Kristina George and a three-run homer by Lauren Lesniak carried Western Nevada College to a dominant 7-0 victory over Snow College in the first game of a Scenic West Athletic Conference softball doubleheader on Saturday at Edmonds Sports Complex in Carson City.

Freshman left-hander Matt Young on Friday nearly became the third Western Nevada College pitcher to throw a no-hitter. Young no-hit Mount Hood Community College of Gresham, Ore., until catcher Louis Wolf bunted down the third-base line for the Saints' first hit with two outs in the seventh inning at John L. Harvey Field in Carson City.

Young and reliever Kyle Johnson combined on a two-hit shutout as the Wildcats won the opening game of the doubleheader, 3-0. Both hits never left the infield.

Western Nevada College Softball split a doubleheader with Snow College Friday afternoon. In the first match-up, WNC fell to Snow College 7-1, Dakota Robinson started in the circle. She went five innings, and was replaced by Kristina George. Robinson took the loss for the Wildcats. In the second game, pitcher Nicole Lesniak started for the Wildcats. She went the distance to earn the win. Final score, 7-4 WNC.

Baseball fans saw something out of the ordinary on Saturday at John L. Harvey Field in Carson City.
Clinging to a two-run lead in the eighth inning, Western Nevada College coach D.J. Whittemore calculatingly shifted his relief pitchers from the mound to left field and first base to preserve a 3-0 victory over Colorado Northwestern Community College in the final game of a Scenic West Athletic Conference baseball series.

Lauren Lesniak slammed her second grand slam in three weeks, Kristina George tossed a three-hit shutout and Gabriella Canibeyaz doubled twice as Western Nevada College swept a softball doubleheader from Colorado Northwestern on Friday in Rangely, Colo.

Lesniak's 4-for-4 performance at the plate in WNC's 13-0 victory in the opener also included a solo homer and a double. The Wildcats completed the sweep with an 8-6 victory as Canibeyaz went 3 for 4 and Nicole Lesniak shined in relief of starting pitcher Sadee Sorensen.

Finding a way to win games that require a concerted comeback effort is one of many reasons why Western Nevada College coach D.J. Whittemore is on the cusp of his 400th victory with the Carson City baseball program.

Eliminate two big offensive innings for Salt Lake Community College and Western Nevada College played the 18th-ranked Bruins pretty even on Saturday.

The Bruins scored seven runs in the seventh inning to break open a tight game on their way to an 11-2 softball victory and followed that by erupting for eight runs in the second frame in a 10-1 win in game two at Edmonds Sports Complex in Carson City.

By winning both Scenic West Athletic Conference games, the Bruins completed a four-game sweep of the Wildcats, raising their overall record to 17-3.

The Western Nevada College baseball team made a statement Friday afternoon when it grabbed three games from Scenic West Athletic Conference rival Salt Lake Community College at John L. Harvey Field in Carson City.

The initial contest was unfinished business from Thursday’s game that was stopped after 12 innings due to darkness, leaving the teams in a 3-3 tie. WNC captured that win in short order on Friday.

Salt Lake pitcher Chris Bradford opened the 13th inning by striking out two Wildcat batters. Then, Taylor Snyder singled to center field for the Bruins, but was unable to score.

WNC Wildcats baseball resumes at noon today with a double-header at John L. Harvey Field in Carson City. Fans who are unable to attend Wildcat home games can follow Charles Whisnand's play-by-play broadcast of the action by going here.

Meanwhile, in Thursday's baseball action: Hitters don't often receive the sign to hit away on a 3-0 count with their team trailing.

Final-inning comebacks don't ever get old, even for 10th-year Western Nevada College coach D.J. Whittemore.
Even after College of Southern Idaho decisively swung the momentum to its side by scoring the tying run in its last at-bat and forged in front on Mikey Ortega's home run an inning later, the Wildcats didn't flinch Friday in the first game of a Scenic West Athletic Conference baseball doubleheader.

Wildcats Softball opened the 2015 conference season with a triple header against the Golden Eagles of the College of Southern Idaho. The threat of weather looms for the weekend, so getting a jumpstart on the four game series was the goal of Friday's stacked schedule. After dropping the first game 2-11 in five innings, the Wildcats prevailed in the second game, topping CSI 9-8 in overtime.

Corey Pool homered as Western Nevada College slammed five extra-base hits in defeating College of Southern Idaho, 7-4, in its Scenic West Athletic Conference baseball opener Thursday at John L. Harvey Field in Carson City.
CSI, however, bounced back to take game two, using a small-ball approach that its counterparts have succeeded with in the past. The Golden Eagles beat out three bunt singles and executed two sacrifice bunts to overcome home runs by Pool and Kody Reynolds in an 8-4 victory.

After permitting just one run in 25 innings over four games, Western Nevada College gave up six runs in a game-turning seventh inning on Saturday in Henderson.
Brandon Eyring stroked a tiebreaking two-run single and Hadley Thorpe smashed a three-run homer as Utah State University Eastern rallied for a 6-3 nonconference baseball victory over the Wildcats of Carson City.

A gem by sophomore pitcher Max Karnos along with offensive executive and aggressive baserunning added up to a 12-0 Western Nevada College baseball victory over College of Southern Idaho on Thursday.

Karnos (2-1) no-hit the Golden Eagles through six innings and Kody Reynolds and Jake Bennett supplied three hits apiece as the Wildcats stemmed a five-game losing streak in Henderson. The Wildcats of Carson City stole eight bases, including two by Bennett and Austin Andrews, and put down three successful sacrifice bunts.

It was a NCAA Division I baseball debut worthy of national and Big West Conference recognition. Former Western Nevada College pitcher Rayne Raven hurled seven shutout innings and fanned 16 hitters in his first outing for Cal State University, Northridge in a 6-0 victory over Utah Valley on Saturday.

Two days after the overpowering performance, the junior right-hander was among Collegiate Baseball Newspaper's National Players of the Week and was the first pitcher of the week for the Big West Conference for the 2015 season.

If the Western Nevada College baseball team intends to win its third straight series to start the season, the Wildcats will need to beat Riverside City College in the teams' final two games this weekend.
Riverside capitalized on four first-inning errors and then rode the pitching of left-hander Austin Sodders to a 8-1 victory over WNC of Carson City on Friday night in Riverside, Calif.

The unbeaten Tigers, ranked eighth in the California Community College Athletic Association preseason poll, scored four unearned runs against WNC sophomore right-hander Max Karnos in the first inning.

After six road wins for the Western Nevada College baseball team to start the season, third-ranked Cochise College of Douglas, Ariz., and WNC reversed roles in the finale of their four-game series Sunday in Henderson.
WNC, which trailed in each of the three previous games but rallied to win all three, took an early lead, but the Apaches of came back to win, 7-3.

It was a history-making day for the Western Nevada College softball team on Friday in Yuma, Ariz.
The Wildcats upset Great Western Shootout tournament host Arizona Western College, 2-1, and Eastern Arizona College, 11-7, to beat those programs for the first time ever.

WNC also defeated Yavapai College for the second time in a week, winning 8-3 in eight innings.

The victory over third-ranked Arizona Western College is the highest-rated team WNC has ever beaten. To do so, the Wildcats used aggressive baserunning to push across the deciding run in the seventh inning.

Nothing short of a wild finish could separate Western Nevada College and Cochise College on the baseball diamond on Friday at Morse Field in Henderson.
Tied at 4 in the 10th inning, the Wildcats parlayed two wild pitches into a come-from-behind 7-4 victory over the third-ranked team in the country.

For a day, the Western Nevada College Wildcats can take solace in slaying last year's dragon. After losing four of five games, including a pair of Western District tournament matchups, to South Mountain last season, the Wildcats were determined to turn the tables on the Phoenix team to open the 2015 baseball season.

The sample size was only five innings, but Western Nevada College's softball team proved in its season opener on Friday that it could go swing for swing with one of the top programs in the country.

Central Arizona, ranked 12th in the opening National Junior College Athletic Association poll, scored twice in the bottom of the fifth inning to squeak past the Wildcats, 15-14, in a rain-shortened opening game at the College of Southern Nevada Kickoff Classic in Henderson, Nev.

Western Nevada College’s highly regarded baseball team has lost its voice. Chris Graham, the longtime voice of the Wildcats, won’t return this season to broadcast WNC baseball games over the Internet.

The three-time Scenic West Athletic Conference Broadcaster of the Year has volunteered as the Wildcats’ play-by-play announcer for eight seasons. Now, a new job at the Nevada Legislature will not permit him the time to continue with his self-described passion.

It will be a youthful Western Nevada College baseball team that takes the field this spring in Carson City at John L. Harvey Field. With a roster that is 70 percent freshmen, the Wildcats will enter the 2015 season without the experience that has fostered regular success in the past.

The two-time defending Region 18 champions open their season on Jan. 30 against last season’s nemesis, South Mountain College of Arizona, which ended the Wildcats’ season only a few wins shy of another trip to the Junior College World Series.

A Carson City man wanted on a felony charge of battery causing substantial bodily harm in which the victim suffered severe eye damage was taken into custody Saturday night.
Rico Wiggins, 27, was arrested at around 9:25 p.m. at a restaurant in the 3800 block of South Carson Street, a Carson City sheriff’s deputy said. A 28-year-old man, Bryan Gaudette, was also arrested on suspicion of harboring a fugitive, a felony.

For a student athlete who has routinely associated with winners during his amateur baseball career, it’s no surprise that Western Nevada College pitcher Max Karnos has decided to make Sacramento State his next destination after the 2015 season with WNC.

Karnos, a 6-foot-4 right-hander from Anchorage, Alaska, signed a letter of intent with the Hornets this week.

“I just felt like it was the right school,” Karnos said. “I really like the coaches, I like the team, and they have a good winning tradition.”

Starting pitching stood out for the Western Nevada College baseball team in its annual Player World Series on Oct. 15-18 at John L. Harvey Field in Carson City. Six of the Wildcats’ eight starting pitchers surrendered two runs or less in the four games of a series won by Team Lichty, 3-1.

“Both coaches did a great job and both rosters competed reasonably well. Overall, it was as lopsided a series as I can remember watching,” said WNC skipper D.J. Whittemore.

As Major League Baseball heads into the post season, a study completed at the University of Nevada, Reno offers insight into how weather and, more specifically, temperature may impact teams’ performance. The published research project, “The Impact of Temperature on Major League Baseball,” applies statistical data analysis to determine how temperature plays a role in the MLB.