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	MVHS Splits Doubleheader With Pahrump

	By Jonathan Oglesby Moapa Valley Progress Submitted Apr. 9, 2008 Pirate baseball found themselves in Pahrump Valley on Wednesday, April 2, for a Southern 3A Opening Day matchup. The matchup was a classic one: the 2007 Nevada 3A Runner-Up against the team that is ranked number one in the state currently for the 3A. With all of this, it turned out to be just another doubleheader that is going to help decide who will be Southern Nevada’s representative in the State Baseball Tournament this season. In the opening game of the doubleheader Moapa Valley pulled out their ace for the first division game of the season. When Dallin Seely took the mound, he brought with him a pre-season full of confidence and preparation that had brought him to this moment as one of Moapa Valley’s top pitchers. Moapa Valley opened early with defensive and offensive output as Moapa Valley spread out the hits early. The Pirates started playing solid ball in the first inning by scoring one run to give an early advantage. Moapa then came out to score two runs in both the second and third innings to give them a 5-0 lead after three innings. With the Pirate offensive output done for the game, it was up to the defense which was led by Seely to finish off the kill. Seely did just that as he pitched seven innings of shutout baseball to lead Moapa Valley to a 5-0 victory to start off their 2008 Southern 3A campaign. Seely and the defense only gave up five hits and only committed one error. Game Two would be a different story in Pahrump however as the Trojan comedy stopped as Moapa Valley was left trying to find out what had happened. After a 5-0 dismantling of the Trojans, it seemed that the Pirates were set to pick up an easy Game Two and head home tied with Faith Lutheran for the division lead. Pitching and defensive trouble prevented that from happening though as Bobby Vallet wasn’t quite able to get into his normally high quality groove on the mound. The Trojans barraged the Pirates early on as Pahrump Valley opened up with four runs off of Vallet and the defense to swing momentum heavily into their corner. While Moapa Valley would score a run to put the score back to 4-1 after the top of the second inning, mojo definitely wouldn’t be on their side as problems continued to arise. One of these problems was reliever Matt Newton who came in to try and patch up the early pitching woes. Newton and the Pirate defense would give up three runs in both the fourth and fifth innings though to put themselves in a deep hole with the Trojans leading 10-1. It was at this point however that the Pirates fired up their offensive production and went turned the Trojans on their heads in a six run sixth inning. This type of production turned out to be dangerous as the Pirate suddenly found themselves trailing 10-7 with one inning left. Moapa Valley would go on to score two more runs in the seventh inning before three strikes were called with the tying run on second base. With this, the Trojans held on for a narrow 10-9 victory over a charging Pirate team. So with the first week of division play done, the Southern 3A is already taking shape in terms of the race for the playoffs. Currently, Faith Lutheran leads with a 2-0 start while Boulder City, Moapa Valley, and Pahrump Valley are tied with a 1-1 start as all three teams split their opening series. Virgin Valley is currently in last place with a 1-3 start to the division after losing two to Faith Lutheran and one to Boulder City.