Bengals earn top seed for Connie Mack tourney

Bonanza High School's baseball team surprised many by advancing to the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association's Division I state tournament this season.

Now, some of those players are proving it was no fluke.

The Las Vegas Bengals are the No. 1 seed for the Connie Mack 18-and-under state tournament, which begins Tuesday at the College of Southern Nevada.

Several of the players who helped Bonanza win the Sunset Region title are on the Bengals roster and helped the team to a 16-2 league mark, two games better than both Snow Canyon (Utah) and Desert Hills (Utah).

The Bengals will face the eighth-seeded Las Vegas Wildcats (4-14) at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. No. 3 seed Snow Canyon (13-3) faces the No. 6 Las Vegas Mustangs (8-8) at 12:30 p.m., with the fifth-seeded Las Vegas Falcons (10-8) meeting the No. 4 seed Southern Nevada Bulls (12-6) at 4 p.m.

No. 2 Desert Hills and No. 7 Dixie (Utah) will meet at Dixie State University at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

The eight-team, double-elimination tournament wraps up Saturday at CSN, with the winner advancing to the region tournament on July 24 in Seattle.