Nedin Again Proves Reliable for Canyons

On a pitching staff that has been handcuffed by youth and inexperience, Tim Nedin is the exception for College of the Canyons.

The sophomore left-hander allowed 7 hits in 8 innings Thursday, leading Canyons to its fifth consecutive win in a 13-3 Western State Conference victory over visiting Pierce.

For Canyons Coach Len Mohney, who has 20 freshmen on a squad of 28, Nedin (4-0) is the lone bright spot on a staff that is still adjusting to WSC play.

“We’ve made some improvements in the right direction,” Mohney said. “But we’ve still got a lot of areas to work on, especially our pitching.”

Canyons’ pitching was sound against Pierce, however, with Nedin on the mound. After the Brahmas scored 2 runs in the first inning, Pierce didn’t score again until Paul Plyler’s home run to right in the seventh.

For Pierce Coach Bob Lyons, the loss was especially disappointing since it dropped the Brahmas below .500 in the WSC standings. Pierce is now 7-4 overall and 1-2 in conference play.

“We just played poorly,” Lyons said. “We had a lead and then threw it away and it was downhill from there.”

Pierce’s troubles started in the first. Trailing, 2-0, the Cougars staged a 4-run rally behind run-scoring singles by Ray Palagyi and Chris Joy.

Canyons (8-3, 3-0) added 4 more runs in the third. Don Pedersen singled to right and Mike Bible walked before Scott Campbell singled home Pedersen. Bible then scored on Ross Linstrom’s infield grounder. With reliever Jim Dollar in to pitch for starter Kevin Day, Randy Cooper smacked a 2-run single to center that scored Campbell and Linstrom.

The Cougars were held to singles until the sixth, when they broke through with a double and home run. Palagyi doubled to right and scored on Pedersen’s wind-blown home run to right.

Pierce had its only extra-base hits in the seventh on Plyler’s home run and Dave Clemons’ double.

The Cougars collected 14 hits off 4 Pierce pitchers. Day suffered the loss to drop to 2-2.

Pierce had 7 hits off Nedin and reliever Pabla Suarez, who relieved Nedin in the ninth.