Softball: Playoff spot on the line as Vaqueros visit Spring Creek

Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter

With one more series yet to play for both teams, this week’s series between Fernley and Spring Creek may not immediately determine the final two playoff spots in the Northern 3A Softball Tournament, but it will go a long way toward clearing up the picture for the final weekend.

The Vaqueros are scheduled to play at Spring Creek Monday at 3 p.m. and in a doubleheader Tuesday starting at 1 p.m. The series is being played during the week because the Vaqueros competed over the weekend in the Lassen Tournament in Susanville, where they went 1-3-1.

The Vaqueros enter Monday’s series opener in fourth place in the Northern 3A East with a 3-6 record, and they currently sit as the fifth seed for the region tournament with 13 total points in the standings. Spring Creek is 2-7 and has 12 points, tied with Dayton for the sixth seed.

The winner of the series will collect either two or three more points, and a tiebreaker edge, depending on whether they win two of three or sweep.

This series won’t determine the ultimate playoff seeds, because it’s possible that the loser of the series could still make the playoffs, but it’s unlikely that the winner would miss the tournament. With a sweep in Spring Creek, Fernley would temporarily move ahead of Elko into the fourth seed, heading into this weekend’s series between Fernley and Elko. A Spring Creek sweep would tie them with Elko for fourth, but the Spartans have already lost two of three to Elko, so they would need to win one game more than Elko this weekend to move up.

The loser of the series will remain alive in the playoff race, but would be battling with Dayton for the sixth seed. They would need two wins this weekend and would need Dayton to lose at least three of its four games this week, a crossover against Hug on Wednesday and against Lowry this weekend.