By GANNON HANEVOLD
Moapa Valley Progress
With three games on the schedule last week, and all three coming against potential playoff teams out of the Sunrise division, things seemed to be set up to be a gauntlet for the Moapa Valley High School Softball team. However, despite ending the week with an unfortunate loss, the results of the games set Moapa Valley up in good position long term as the playoffs approach.
The Pirates started the tough week with a Monday afternoon road matchup against Del Sol. The team would run away with one of their highest scoring games of the year. The final score rounded out at 19-7.
Leading by just two going into the third inning, the Pirates would blow out the Dragons in the final innings. Kaitlyn Anderson and Emilie Barraza put on the most impressive performances of the game for the Pirates. Each of them would score five RBIs.
Head coach Matt Messer was excited with his team’s result. “We came out and played pretty well and out-slugged them,” he said. “That was nice to get it out of the way.”
On Wednesday, the Pirates took on Chaparral on the home field. Emilie Barraza was on the mound again for Moapa Valley. In the first inning, the Cowboys would take a 1-0 lead, but from there onward it was all the Pirates.
At the plate, Sierra Staheli led the Pirates with a double and a triple. Ultimately, the Pirates would pull away, as they have for much of this season. The final score would end up being 16-1.
“We played well, hit well, pitched well, kind of did everything well,” Messer said about the game. “That was a good win for us, because they’ll probably end up in third for our division.”
Now, the Pirates only had one tough game left on the schedule for the week: Boulder City.
Earlier in the season, the Pirates went into Boulder City and took down the Eagles in front of their home fans. Now the Eagles sought revenge with a game in Moapa Valley on Friday.
The Eagles started strong, scoring three runs in the first inning. But, by the time the Pirates reached the fourth, they had tied things up again.
It was then that Boulder City reclaimed the lead, 5-4. They would score two in each of the final innings and lock down a win to split the series with the Pirates in 2018. The final score was 9-4.
“We knew they were tough and we’d have to play well,” Messer said following the game. “We didn’t play super well but Emilie did a good job pitching.”
Barraza pitched seven strikeouts with just one walk. Despite the score, Barraza had one of her top games of the year.
Kessa Evans led the Pirates offensively with three RBIs and a triple.
The Pirate coach explained that Moapa’s batters just couldn’t get into a rhythm. “We couldn’t string hits together,” Messer said. “It was a little disappointing but it was just one of those games. We only had six hits which was uncharacteristic for us. We didn’t feel too bad, even though we did really want to win. We forgot it already.”
The two teams will likely meet again in the playoffs, and the Pirates are close to clinching the top seed in the Sunrise division. The next time the teams meet, Messer explained what he might expect to be different. “Boulder City’s pitcher pitched really well,” he said. “We’ll take a different approach on her next time. She does a good job at getting ahead in the count and we’ll do our best to jump right on that.”
There are just two games left in the regular season, and with Boulder City and Moapa Valley each landing a jab at the other in their two regular season matchups, all eyes are on the playoffs.
