Eureka County High baseball team opens season

Eureka has a non-league meeting this Friday with Beaver Dam of Littlefield, Arizona. It would be a very long way to go if not for the fact the game is part of the two-day, four-team tournament in Alamo.

Other teams involved include Wells and Pahranagat Valley.

Third year coach Kia Davis said the Vandals return six lettermen from the 2018 team that finished 6-10, but did not make the 1A Northern regional playoffs.

Top players this year are Mikel Lacovera (Sr) P/Inf, Gage Hayward (Jr.) P/SS, Zach Garcia (Jr.), 1B/2B, Wyatt Anderson (Soph.), P/Util, Byron Weeks (Fr.), C, Clayton Shoda (Fr.) Utility.

Davis said, “We have a couple of returning players who are pretty good and are welcoming in a talented bunch of freshman and sophomore players.”

Davis thinks in the Northern league this year Wells is going to have one of their best team in years behind senior pitcher Zane Rodriguez. “The Leopards are expected to be the team to beat along with Mineral County, who also return a solid core.”

Wells and Mineral County were the state representative from the Northern league last year to the state tournament. But both lost out to Pahranagat Valley and Indian Springs.

Davis said what the Vandals need to do in order to be as competitive as they hope to be is to get rid of the errors that plagued the team so much last year. “A lot of my players just don’t have baseball experience, are underclassmen and even though they are athletic, when it comes to baseball it’s a lot of just knowing what to do at the right time.”

Eureka played last week in the preseason Cactus Classic in Mesquite, but scores were not available.

This week they attend the Panther Invitational in Alamo, and face Wells, Beaver Dam and Pahranagat Valley.

But after that they will have two weeks off before starting league play with about double-header in Eureka against Mineral County.