Last week’s 3A North Region Softball Tournament started and ended in controversy.
In between, the games themselves were everything a tournament of that magnitude should be.
On May 6, the day before the tournament began, the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association removed Fallon from the bracket, announcing that it had declared two players ineligible. According to a statement by the Churchill County School District, the NIAA had previously determined the two players to be eligible, but reversed that determination on May 5, saying the players were ruled ineligible based on falsified records provided by family.
Fallon was replaced in the bracket by Debbie Smith Academy, which had lost to Fallon in a first-round best-of-3 series on May 1. Debbie Smith Academy beat Truckee in the first game of the tournament on May 7, but lost its next two games, 15-0 to Lowry and 14-0 to Elko.
Meanwhile, the tournament came down to Fernley as the last teams standing.
Fernley’s 7-5 win over Lowry in 11 innings on Friday and the 17-13 Lowry win on Saturday morning were incredible games.
Walking between third base and the dugout while her team prepared for its turn to bat in the bottom of the fourth inning on Friday, Lowry coach Megan Maga looked toward the sky and said, “This is so much fun.”
I wasn’t sure if she was speaking to herself, her team, or the universe, but at that point, I couldn’t have agreed more. Then the game got even better.
The rest of that game, and the two on Saturday in the championship round, featured clutch hits, great defensive plays, questionable calls that left both teams frustrated, and the drama you can only feel when a game is down to one play to win, lose, or keep going.
At more than one point on both Friday and Saturday, I wondered to myself what more could be missing.
Then came the final play of the tournament.
With Fernley’s 9-8 lead hanging by a thread, Lowry’s Makinley Hislop swung at a pitch that hit her and rolled toward third base in foul territory. The umpires ruled that Hislop swung and missed at a pitch that hit her for a strikeout.
But even in the moment, as Lowry players and coaches argued the ruling and Fernley players huddled in the infield waiting for the decision, everyone watching seemed confused about what had happened. Several people were saying that Hislop hit the ball, which would have made it a foul ball. Others thought she had stepped in front of the plate while swinging, which would have made the play an automatic out if she was hit by the ball in fair territory.
I didn’t see the play live because I had my phone aimed toward the pitcher’s circle, trying to get video of the celebration if the Vaqueros got the final out to win the championship. A video of the play shot by Tony Erquiaga of the Humboldt Sun appears to show the ball bouncing off Hislop’s bat before hitting her, and she appears to still be in the batter’s box.
Along with the disqualification of Fallon, it was a messy ending to what was a great tournament on the field.
Fortunately, the controversy didn’t end the season for Lowry, and hopefully the drama at this week’s state tournament will only be provided by the players.
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