The Reed Raiders varsity baseball team finished up a tough three-game series against the McQueen by splitting a long, cold, windy doubleheader on Saturday.

The first game of the twin bill was an offensive juggernaut, with Reed nearly avoiding a repeat of Thursday's comeback win by the Landers. But the Raiders managed to stop a rally by McQueen in the bottom of the seventh and walk away with a 20-19 win.

After the three-an-half hours of play in the first game, the Raiders seemed to give up during the Lancers' 14-run first inning en route to an 18-7 loss.

"Little bit of happiness we got a win but I'm very disappointed how the second game turned out. A little embarrassing," Reed coach Nick Royle said as the late afternoon wind whipped across the McQueen High School baseball field.

The starting pitcher for Reed in the second game, Garrett Corbett, was pelted by the Lancers for nine hits and 14 runs, including a grand slam by center fielder Phil Sacks. Corbett faced 13 batters and only recorded one out before giving way to Devin Gamboa, who gave up a two-run home run to his first batter, first baseman Nick Finney. Gamboa retired the next two hitters to bring the inning mercifully to an end.

Lancer pitcher Will Frazier took care of the rest, striking out eight Raiders through 4-2/3 innings. Frazier took a 20-3 lead into the fifth inning and was one out away from beating Reed under the 10-run mercy rule, but the Raiders scraped out four runs in a last-gasp effort. Frazier was obviously disappointed when he handed off the ball to reliever Dylan Kay, who nailed down the final out and the win.

But in the eyes of coach Royle and judging by the composure of the Raider players, the second game ended when the Lancers answered Reed's three first-inning runs with 14 of their own.

"When we put up three runs in the first inning we get the momentum back up into our dugout and we pretty much just gave it back to them in the bottom of the first inning," Royle said.

Despite winning just half an hour earlier, the momentum at the end of the first game was clearly with McQueen. In the home half of the seventh inning of Game 1, the Lancers trailed 20-12, thanks largely to an eight-run second inning by the Raiders, highlighted by Casey Yocom's three-run home run and Ryan Butler's two-run triple. With Reed needing just three outs to win, the Lancers worked six walks and sprinkled in two hits to score eight times. With the tying run on base, pitcher Sierra Burton got Chris Stocker, who had homered in McQueen's come-from-behind win against Reed on Thursday, to fly out to center field to end the game.

Despite the long first game, Royle said a lack of pitching was not a factor in the second game.

"We started Sam (Petrie) and we only used one relief pitcher in the first game so we had plenty of people on the bench," Royle said. "We had plenty of pitching it's just why am I going to risk someone going out there when the seven guys behind them aren't going to play defense."

Several errors contributed to McQueen's 14-run outburst but the cold wind that took hold during the second game also had an impact, not just on body temperatures but on several pop flies that had defenders struggling to figure out where the ball would come down.

With Thursday's dramatic win by McQueen, the High Desert League series came down in favor of the Lancers, two games to one. Though the two teams will not meet again in the regular season, the coaches expect that this rivalry may see more action in 2009 and beyond.

"The coaching staff from both teams, we were talking and saying that this is going to be a series to look forward to every year," Royle said. "So we'll see, hopefully we'll get to see them in the playoffs later in the year."