With a sweep of last week’s three-game series against Spring Creek, the Fernley High School softball team took sole possession of second place. Now the Vaqueros have six games left to try to keep it.
Fernley beat Spring Creek 14-2 last Friday, and 10-0 and 8-1 in a doubleheader on Saturday to improve to 6-3 in the Northern 3A East. The Vaqueros had been tied with Elko and Fallon at 3-3 before last weekend, but Fallon beat Elko in two of three games. Fallon is now 5-4, with Elko 4-5. Lowry leads the league at 8-1 after sweeping Dayton last weekend.
Lowry beat Fernley twice in the first league series of the season, so the Buckaroos would win the tiebreaker if they finish with the same league record.
“If we keep doing what we’re supposed to do and someone else can beat them, great,” coach Diane Chapin said. “If we can stay in the two-seed, that’s also nice because you get the bye into regionals and end up on the other side (of the bracket). It’s not a bad place to be as a two.”
In last Friday’s game, pitcher Janessa Robinson held Spring Creek to two runs on three hits.
“She grew great, kept them off balance and hit her spots,” Chapin said. “They didn’t get anything consecutively.”
Taylor Tollestrup went 4-for-4 with a two-run home run and drove in four runs.
In Saturday’s first game, the Spartans opted to pitch around Tollestrup, and she walked three times and was hit by a pitch.
Bella Leija and Emma Collins were the beneficiaries, with runners on base each time they came to the plate. Leija had two hits and drove in three runs, and Collins drove in four runs with a pair of doubles.
“Others stepping in and hit the ball,” Chapin said. “We didn’t have a ton of hits, but we had a ton of baserunners because we were getting on base by walks.”
Emma Masters pitched a shutout, allowing two hits with five strikeouts and five walks.
In the second game Saturday, a run-scoring double was the biggest blow as the Vaqueros scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning. In the third inning, the Vaqueros were primed to blow the game wide open with the bases loaded and Tollestrup coming up, but the Spartans elected to intentionally walk her and force in a run instead. Fernley led 4-0 into the sixth inning, where Tollestrup hit a home run to lead off the inning, Rodriguez tripled in a run, and the Vaqueros scored twice more on a passed ball and a fielder’s choice.
This week the Vaqueros are scheduled to play in Dayton, with a single game Friday at 3 p.m. and a doubleheader Saturday starting at 11 a.m. Dayton is 2-7 in league play, but all three of its losses against Lowry last week were one- or two-run games, and one was in extra innings, and pitcher LaSade Conti is one of the best in the league, leading the league with 93 strikeouts.
“You know you’re going to face her probably two out of three games, if not all three,” Chapin said. “So we’ll just have to be ready to come out and hit the velocity and hopefully keep our defense doing what they’ve been doing.”
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