DIVISION I-A BASEBALL: Meyer pitches Crusaders to region final, state berth

Brenden Meyer struck out eight and allowed one hit in five scoreless innings Wednesday to lead Faith Lutheran to a 5-1 home win over Boulder City in the Division I-A Southern Region tournament.

“He’s always been a great competitor,” Faith Lutheran coach Blair Neagle said. “We knew he would perform well on the big stage. We have the luxury of being kind of deep and so we were able to save him. He was locating his fastball, and had really good pop and was putting it where he wanted it.”

The Crusaders (23-8) advance to Friday’s championship round and have clinched a berth in next week’s state tournament.

Caleb Summerhays had an RBI triple to highlight a two-run fifth that pushed the lead to 5-0. Summerhays tripled to deep right after Alec Goss started the inning with a double.

“That was a real big hit,” Neagle said. “It was nice to see him use that side as they had shifted over to the left. He went with the pitch, and that was a huge situation.”

Moapa Valley (17-9-1) plays Chaparral (22-8) at 4 p.m. Thursday at Faith Lutheran, with the winner facing Boulder City at 7 p.m.

The winner of Thursday’s second game also will earn a berth at state and will face Faith Lutheran in the region championship round on Friday.

“We’ve got a real good arm left in (Erich) Uelmen, and I think we’ve got him in the right spot,” Neagle said. “I know he’ll go out there and give us a good outing.”

Chaparral 7, Tech 5 — Zach Harman’s two-run double highlighted a seven-run third as the Cowboys eliminated the Roadrunners (13-10).

Freddie Briones was 2-for-3 with a double and a run, and Chad Clark was 2-for-4 with a run for Chaparral.

Elias Peinado had a double and a triple for Tech.

Moapa Valley 10, Western 0 — Kasen Hughes went 3-for-4 with a double, a triple, three runs and two RBIs to help the Pirates to the five-inning win over the Warriors (12-19).

Josh Repp was 3-for-3 with two runs, and Chad Jones went 2-for-3 with two RBIs for Moapa Valley.

Jared Repp threw a two-hitter with four strikeouts to get the win.