The Spanish Springs Cougars had high expectations going into the spring season. After a slow start, many in the Purple uniforms were starting to wonder when the Cougars would break out.

That may have happened Thursday night as Spanish Springs rolled to a 10-3 home triumph over North Valleys in a High Desert League prep baseball battle.

The Cougars got out to a 6-0 edge after three innings and were never threatened in the conference clash. Spanish Springs struck quickly with three runs in the bottom of the first. Adam Miller doubled. Tanner Oates singled and the duo walked home when Humberto Espinoza blasted a three-run homer.

The score stayed at 3-0 until the bottom of the third when the Spanish Springs offense pushed across another trio of runs. Espinoza singled and Davis Murphy singled to initiate the third-inning threat. Espinoza scored when teammate Justin Agliolo reached on an error by the North Valleys left fielder. Murphy raced home on a passed ball and Agliolo scored later in the inning when Garrett Moore got down a sacrifice bunt.

North Valleys tried to hang around. The visiting Panthers got two runs in the top of inning four after Gage Clark doubled and Josh Mathis bashed a two-run dinger. After Spanish Springs was retired with a scoreless frame in the bottom of the fourth, Mitchell Van Ronk doubled and scored for North Valleys, helping the north Reno school trim the Spanish Springs lead to 6-3.

Unfortunately for North Valleys fans, that’s as good as it got. The Cougars got a single run back in the bottom of the fifth and added a 3-spot in the sixth.

Murphy scored the Cougars’ fifth-inning run. He walked, advanced on a passed ball and came plateward on a Moore double.

In the Cougars’ sixth, Miller doubled with two outs and Oates followed with a single. Espinoza laced a run-scoring single and Murphy drilled a two-run double to account for the rally’s scoring.

“I’ve got to give Spanish Springs the credit. Their hitters came to swing,” North Valleys coach Joe Genung said, alluding to 16 SSHS hits. “And then we deflate ourselves. We had a guys get an out trying to go to second. We had a guy get picked at third. Those are rally killers. We couldn’t build on any momentum.

“Our offense is struggling. The fact of the matter is we don’t control at-bats and then sit on pitches we can hit.”

Tyler Eaton turned in seven stellar innings of work for Spanish Springs. He scattered six North Valleys hits while striking out six and walking two in the complete-game victory.

“When you’ve got a three-game series, and you get a guy to go the whole way in the opener, that really sets up your bullpen for the weekend,” Spanish Springs assistant coach Ben Hofmann said. “Tyler was able to get key outs when we already had two outs and we’ve had a problem with that. He threw strikes and had good stuff early. Then he was able to get through it, largely because he got ahead of hitters and put them on the defensive.”

Tyler Osborne took the loss for North Valleys. He went the distance on the hill for the Panthers. He struck out eight against just two walks, but was knocked around by the 16 Cougar hits.

The Cougars improved to 4-9 overall and 2-5 in league games. North Valleys now sits 5-6 and 2-5.

“I’m not sure of our numbers exactly, but we got a ton of hits with two strikes. We had a much better approach than in the past,” Hofmann said. “We’ve been talking about hitting a lot and making adjustments; that we just have to put the ball in play. I’m not sure what the difference was today. Maybe we just got lucky, but hopefully it’s more than that.”

Spanish Springs and North Valleys resume their HDL series with a doubleheader Saturday at NVHS. The twin bill is slated to start at 11 a.m.