JOSH CHASE / SPECIAL TO THE PVT Corey Veloz pitches for Pahrump Valley, in a District 4 Senior Little League baseball game against the Red Rock Cardinals Saturday, at Honeysuckle Park. Advertisement

The Pahrump Valley Senior Little League team seemed to lag in the first half of its doubleheader against the Red Rock Cardinals Saturday morning at Honeysuckle Park.

After dropping the first game 11-5, the Trojans got it together and gave the Cardinals something to think about on the ride home. In a back-and-forth game that had to be ended after the fifth inning because of a two-hour time limit, the Trojans beat the Cardinals 6-5 to split the series.

Manager Brandon Bietar said his team should have won both games, because as he saw it, the Cardinals didn't earn the victory so much as the Trojans handed it to them.

"That's the worst kind of loss, when you give away a game. I mean, we had seven errors," he said. "I had to let these guys know: You're giving it away, they're not earning it."

In the first Trojans-Cardinals match-up, Dominic Swedan, Ethan Wald, Cody Nielsen and Corey Veloz all had runs batted in.

In the fifth, Wald also made it home on a wild pitch, but the Trojans' five runs just weren't enough. The Cardinals scored four times in the first, three times in the third, three times in the fifth and once in the seventh, forcing the Trojans to play catchup all game.

Bietar said the Trojans avoided being swept by getting "pumped up to their level" during the intermission between games one and two.

Also helping the team to a second game victory, said Bietar, was a steady day on the mound from pitcher Danny Cazier.

"I mean, Danny is 5-0 now," Bietar said. "Just hand him the ball and he competes every time."

But Cazier wasn't the only player with a good performance. Starting catcher Wald recorded a pair of RBI in the fourth. He later scored on a wild pitch. Wald also drew a bases-loaded walk to score Cazier in the first, before coming in when Swedan hit a liner to right field.

While the Trojans were able to fend off the Cardinals, who scored twice in the second, twice in the third and once in the fourth, the boys' victory wasn't without its close moments, particularly near the end.

With only half-inning to go before the game's two-hour limit expired, the Cardinals got a man to each first and third with no outs.

After the first hit, Cody Nielsen came in to close and after giving up a base hit, proceeded to deliver three straight outs to send the Cards packing. The first was a strike out, the second came when he picked off the runner at third, final out came when K.J. Jasperson caught a line drive to left field.