Late innings end Vaqueros’ back-to-back title dreams

The hardest part of building a dynasty is defending it, a harsh lesson the Fernley Vaqueros learned across 24 painful hours last week.

Entering the 3A State Tournament as region champions and top seed from the North, Fernley was in position to make a run for its second consecutive state title. Instead, the Vaqueros were reminded how quickly an advantage can evaporate.

Pahrump scored nine runs in the last two innings in the tournament opener last Thursday to drop the Vaqueros into the elimination bracket, 13-4. Then Friday, after the Vaqueros rallied from a 4-run deficit to take a 7-5 lead, Lowry pushed across five runs in the last two innings and sent the Vaqueros home with a 10-8 loss.

“We just didn't play the caliber we need to be playing at this time of year in that tournament,” coach Diane Chapin said.

In the first game of the tournament on Thursday, Bella Leija hammered a double to right field to drive in Lauren Smith and Taylor Tollestrup and put the Vaqueros ahead 3-1 in the bottom of the third inning. An error on a sacrifice bunt by Emma Masters put runners on first and third with one out, but Pahrump turned another sacrifice bunt attempt into a double play to keep the Vaqueros from adding to the lead.

“We had opportunities to score more runs, and we had a missed sign cost us potentially two more runs and kind of shift the momentum back to then,” Chapin said.

Pahrump capitalized immediately in the top of the fourth inning when Sadie Freeman hit a triple to the center field fence to drive in a run and cut the lead to 3-2. In the top of the fifth, Jaelyn Rodriguez put the Trojans ahead 4-3 with a two-run double to left field. The final two innings belonged entirely to the Trojans, who scored three runs in the sixth inning and six more in the seventh to take a 13-3 lead.

A sacrifice fly by Grace Chapin to drive in Tollestrup, who had doubled and stole third, made the final score 13-4.

“I didn’t think we actually did well in any aspect of that game,” Diane Chapin said. “At the plate we weren’t disciplined hitting, and then defensively we had quite a few mistakes. We just didn’t capitalize when we had the opportunities to.”

That dropped the Vaqueros into the elimination bracket on Friday, where they faced Lowry, which lost its first game 2-1 to Virgin Valley.