March 20, 2008
Panther Baseball & Softball

Photo by Dave Maxwell Mary Higbee scores run for PVHS in game with Wendover.

By Dave Maxwell, Staff Writer

Lincoln County and Pahranagat Valley baseball and softball teams were both in action March 14-15, heading into their Spring Break.

The Alamo boys played in the Moapa Wood Bat Tournament in Overton, so named because the teams use wood bats instead of aluminum bats that have been the standard for high school and college teams for many years.

Coach Brad Loveday says using wood bats puts more of the emphasis on pitching and defense. “Aluminum bats have become so high performance and expensive,” Loveday said. Aluminum bats today cost about $370 and wood bats can be made much more inexpensively from a composite material that will last at least one year without cracking,” he said. “Wood bats,” he said, “also help the kids to learn to hit the ball a little better.”

The Panther boys were 1-3 in the tournament play. They lost on Friday to Kanab, Utah 8-4 and 11-1 to Virgin Valley. On Saturday, they won the morning game with Wells 5-4, but lost in the afternoon to Moapa 4-1.

Mike Sparrows softball team went 2-2 in their own Panther Classic that same weekend. They lost to West Wendover 11-9 on Friday, but came back with a 19-7 win over Eureka. On Saturday, they lost to 2A powerhouse White Pine 3-1 and beat Eureka a second time 16-4.

After spring break this week, Alamo baseball resumes with a home game March 25 against Mountain View and then at Spring Mountain on March 28. The softball girls also host Mountain View on March 25, and then play at Moapa March 26 and at Carlin and Wells on March 28-29.