How are the Pahrump Valley Trojans doing in the playoffs?

MESQUITE — On the sweaty 144-mile long bus ride to Virgin Valley Thursday night, the Trojans were pretty certain of one thing: they were not going home just yet.

Defeating Virgin Valley 8-0 on their new home turf, the Trojans staved off elimination in an impressive road showing. On the road this year, the Trojans haven’t been the strongest as they have a 10-6 record compared to being 10-4-1 at home.

Despite the away showings, the boys looked right at home from the jump.

“I’m happy as s**t, that’ll all I have to say!” head coach Roy Uyeno jokingly said post game. “The boys really wanted this game. We wanted Virgin Valley you know, they’re the defending state champions. On the way here, the boys were all pumped up on the bus. That’s all we need.”

Trojans starting pitcher Andrew Zurn was called upon do a job he’s been tasked with many times this season: get the team deep into the game.

The senior took the call head on, tossing seven scoreless frames for a complete-game shutout.

Only surrendering three hits the entire game, Zurn pitched to contact and was consistently backed up by his defense behind him.

Despite committing two errors in the game, the Trojans defense flashed leather from all sides of the field to help Zurn cruise through seven innings and save arms for tomorrow’s double-header in Boulder City.

“I just trusted my defense on the ground balls,” Zurn said. “Damn near every one of them was hit right to Aidyn. That’s the name of the game right there.”

The Trojans got on the board in the top of the second inning following a hit by sophomore Chris Nelson and RBI line drive to left field from 9-hole hitter, senior Logan Donnelly.

For the next three innings, the Trojans traded clean defense with Virgin Valley as both Zurn and the Bulldogs starting pitcher sophomore Uriah Peredia kept their pitch counts low into the sixth inning.

In the top of the sixth inning, Aidyn Cratty singled past freshman third baseman Parker Litzenberger but was later thrown out attempting to steal second base. With two outs, catcher Benny Cimperman singled to drive in pinch runner sophomore Aaron Rily to make it 2-0. Kayne Horibe would fly around from third on a past ball to steal home and put the Trojans up 3-0.

“We started off the game slow, but as we got through the game we got pretty faster. We got the bats working and we weren’t trying to do as much of the ball,” Cimperman said. “In the clutch spots, everybody kept just hitting and once they got that starter out we were able to just smack the rest of the guys.”

The catcher was also impressive behind the plate with three putouts, hosing runners at second base.

Knowing three runs were not nearly enough insurance runs, the Trojans applied the band-aids on the Bulldogs open wounds as a double by Zurn and Nelson scored two followed by another RBI single by Cimperman to extend the Trojans lead out 8-0.

“It felt amazing. We needed that run support all game. It just gave some more breathing room for me,” Zurn said.

The Trojans return back to Boulder City on the road for a potenial double-header against Moapa Valley at 1 p.m. and Boulder City at 4 p.m. as they need to win to keep their state hopes alive.

Contact Jacob Powers at [email protected]. Follow @jaypowers__ on X.