Determined Reno team to play for Legion title

Victoria Sun

Friday, Aug. 9, 2002 | 9:01 a.m.

The last time a team from Reno won the American Legion State Tournament, most of the players on this year's roster hadn't been born.

In fact, it was so long ago that Reno manager Pete Savage isn't sure whether it was 1984 or 1985.

This much is certain: the Knights advanced to Saturday's championship game with a hard-fought 11-7 victory over Silverado Thursday night at the Community College of Southern Nevada to remain undefeated in the double-elimination event.

And while Savage downplayed the prospect of his team ending the drought, his players want to bring some baseball credibility to Northern Nevada.

"It's nice being the only North team here," Reno shortstop Kyle Ryckebosch said. "It's nice to get the North some respect down here."

Sixth-seeded Reno improved to 48-20 while seventh-seeded Silverado finished 36-19.

Ryckebosch made up for his two errors in the fourth inning that led to two Silverado runs by going 4-for-5 with two RBIs.

His two-run triple capped a six-run eighth inning for the Knights, who had trailed the entire game.

"We responded good on the offensive side," Ryckebosch said. "We played shaky defensively, but made up for it with our bats.

"We got down early, but we knew we had plenty of time to make up for that because playing nine inning games instead of seven makes it easier to come back."

Clark Lang and Jake Johnson had two hits each for the Knights while Silverado's Jeremy Reynolds went 3-for-4 with three runs scored.

Savage will start one of two left-handed pitchers, either Steve Molof or Jessie Weller, in Saturday's 8 p.m. championship game.

Ryckebosch recognized the value of getting an extra day's rest.

"It's very important because it saves our pitchers so now we have all our pitchers for the championship game," he said.

In the late game, Las Vegas beat Centennial 15-10, forcing a rematch between the teams tonight at 8. The winner will play Reno in the championship game.