It all comes down to one game for the Fernley High School softball team.
After winning their first two games in the 3A Northern League Tournament at South Tahoe on Thursday, the Vaqueros lost 15-0 to Fallon Friday.
That leaves them facing a pivotal game Saturday at 9 a.m. against South Tahoe. At stake: win and go to the State Tournament, and to the championship game, or lose and the season is over.
If they beat the Vikings Saturday morning, the Vaqueros would face a rematch with Fallon, needing to beat the Greenwave twice to take the regional title.
In the tournament opener, Hailee Edgar, Skylar Gothan and McKenna Montgomery each drove in two runs to lead the Vaqueros to the easy win. Leading 2-0, the Vaqueros scored four runs in the third inning to open the gap, then seven in the fourth to put the game away
Macie Kirk handled the pitching, striking out five and allowing just two hits.
Against Lowry, the Vaqueros jumped on top with a run in the first inning and three in the fourth. The game tightened up when Lowry scored single runs in the fourth and fifth to cut the lead to 4-2, but the Vaqueros scored three times in the sixth to open it back up.
Gothan and Kirk each had two hits for Fernley and Gothan and Reese Jones each drove in two runs.
Montgomery went the distance, allowing seven hits with two strikeouts.
“We played great yesterday,” coach Diane Chapin said. “We had played well (the previous weekend), and carried it over yesterday.
But Friday against Fallon, just about everything went wrong
Fallon scored 11 times in the second inning and four more in the third to end the game after three innings because of the 15-run rule.
The Vaqueros will face South Tahoe in the loser’s bracket final, after the Vikings, who entered the tournament as the No. 4 seed, outlasted Lowry 3-2 in 9 innings Friday afternoon.
Fernley won all three games this season against the Vikings, 6-1 on April 20 and 7-6 in 8 innings and 10-0 in a doubleheader on April 21.
Chapin said the Vaqueros need to put Friday’s loss to Fallon behind them quickly.
“We could end up seeing them twice again tomorrow,” she said.
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