DON McDERMOTT / PVT Doug Marion, the first-year Pahrump Valley High School baseball coach, warms up one of his players, before the Trojans played Las Vegas Faith Lutheran in the Nevada Class 3-A state championship game Saturday at Koerwitz Field. Advertisement

LAS VEGAS -- Pahrump Valley may have lost the Nevada Class 3-A title game Saturday. But Friday, the Trojans won what was widely regarded as the most exciting game of the post season, and maybe in Pahrump Valley baseball history.

After losing 11-9 in the first game of the double-elimination tournament to the Dayton Dust Devils -- the North's No. 1 seed -- the Trojans rallied from an 8-1 deficit to outslug them 17-11 to advance to the state championship game at Koerwitz Field.

The victory marked what first-year Coach Doug Marion called "the best day of my life.

"To be rewarded with a chance to win the state title is just amazing," Marion said after the game. "For these kids just to battle and battle and battle and work and work and work and buy into what we're trying to do is just unbelievable."

The game looked grim for the Trojans by the second inning. After Iggy Wagner cleared the bases to score the Trojans's first three runs, the Trojans let the Devils run away with a seven-run rally that included a two-run homer and a run off a balk.

In the fourth, the Trojans fired back in dramatic fashion. Down by five after a score from each team in the third, Wagner cleared the bases again to bring the Trojans to within two runs of the Devils. Catcher Ethan Wald brought Cody Nielsen home on a infield single. Wald then made it home on a wild pitch to tie the game.

The fourth-inning rally continued when Tyrell Smith gave his team the lead with an inside-the-park homer that also scored Danny Miller.

The Devils scored two more runs in the remaining innings, but they weren't enough to overcome the Trojans, who scored six more times.

In the sixth, Dax Duesing got a two-RBI single, Wagner added another RBI to his already phenomenal day, Brandon Uyeno came home on a balk and Nielsen scored Wagner. Austin Garza got the game's final RBI in the seventh.

The game against Dayton followed a 10-0 mercy-rule conquest of the other Northern entry, Spring Creek, a team the Trojans had defeated 8-1 in the River Vallez (Ariz.) tournament the first weekend of the season.

Senior lefthander Dax Duesing limited the Spartans to three hits and struck out 10 as he defeated Spring Creek for the second time this season. John McHugh had two RBI, Austin Garza got one, Duesing recorded a sacrifice fly. Smith doubled for two RBI in the third, as did Uyeno, who also recorded an RBI in the second.

Wald scored that games first run on a bases-loaded walk.

Faith Lutheran had defeated Spring Creek 10-2 in the first round.