The Sparks High baseball team continued to keep its postseason hopes alive by handing conference rival Fernley a 7-4 defeat in a 3A North League clash Wednesday at SHS.

Sparks improved to 8-13 overall and 6-10 in 3A North play with Wednesday’s win over Fernley, which fell to 10-14 overall and 8-8 in league games. Sparks went into the contest tied with Dayton for the league’s fourth and final playoff berth. Sparks and Fernley conclude their final three-game league series of the regular season with a doubleheader Saturday in Lyon County.

“This is a big win for us. It keeps us in the hunt. We can just take it a game at a time from here and hope we get some help from Yerington,” Sparks coach Greg Vasko said, alluding to the Yerington-Dayton series. “When it comes down to it, we just have to win games. We’d like to make the playoffs. That’s been our goal. If we can play like we’re capable of, we could have a shot.”

Fernley grabbed a 2-1 lead Wednesday with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth inning. Josh Cutts and Dylan Robertson both singled and circled the sacks for the Vaqueros, accounting for the one-run edge.

Sparks took control of the contest by putting up three runs in both the fifth and sixth innings.

In the bottom of the fifth, Sparks’ Martin Jordan singled while Andrew Garcia and Joe Puccinelli followed with walks to saturate the sacks with Railroaders. A two-run single by Danny Monroe forged Sparks back ahead, 3-2. James Justice then proceeded to lace another run-scoring single, extending Sparks’ lead to 4-2.

In the SHS sixth, Kirk Putman singled and went to second on an errant pickoff attempt. He scored shortly thereafter on a wild pitch. Alex Medina scored for Sparks when Kent Orta hit a ground-rule double that hopped the fence in right field. Puccinelli capped the Sparks scoring with a single that plated Orta.

Fernley tried to hang around in the seventh. After Railroaders reliever Garcia retired the first two Fernley hitters of the inning, the Vaqueros trimmed the Sparks lead to the final 7-4 margin thanks to a pair of Sparks errors and a single.

However that’s as good as it got for the visitors as Garcia induced a ground ball out, nixing the Vaqueros comeback hopes. Garcia worked two innings of relief in which he allowed just the two unearned runs. He gave up the one hit while striking out one and walking one.

Monroe was the pitching star for Sparks. The senior collected the victory on the hill, tossing the first five innings while limiting Fernley to four hits. He struck out seven without issuing a walk.

“Danny did it hitting wise. He did it on the mound. He was totally focused,” Vasko said. “I think this game meant a lot to him because he knew it would be his last game pitching at Sparks High.

“He got first-pitch strikes. He kept them off balance. He hit his locations. He just really did what he was supposed to.”

Sparks had taken an early 1-0 lead with a single score in the bottom of the second inning. Dennis Morrelli walked and came around to score after a Putman double and Medina groundout.

“Our offense had spurts. A couple times we looked at some called third strikes when we needed to put the ball in play, but then other times we put it in play, did our jobs and took advantage of our opportunities,” Vasko said.