VVHS Softball Falls Short In Final Rounds of State

By KRISTI TAUSINGA

The Progress

The Virgin Valley High School Softball team travelled to the NIAA 3A State Championships in Fernley, Nevada with high hopes. With a near perfect season, the Lady Bulldogs had dominated the Southern Regional tournament the week before, conquering all comers and ending as the top southern seed. But the Bulldogs got snagged on Saturday in a final double-header against a tough Fernley team and ended up falling just short of the State Championship.

Virgin Valley opened up the State Tournament on Thursday, May 19, facing the #2 northern seed, North Valleys. The Bulldogs had little trouble defeating the Panthers, 8-3.

The game was tied at threes when Riley Price came to the plate in the fifth inning and hit a home run on a 3-2 count scoring two more runs and putting the Bulldogs ahead for good.

The Bulldogs had pulled ahead early in the first inning when Price reached first on a passed ball scoring Reggi Frei. A few minutes later Evia Toone hit a single sending home two runners for a 3-0 lead.
The Panthers knotted the game up, 3-3, in the top of the fourth inning. That set the stage for Price’s tiebreaking homer in the fifth.

From there the momentum was all Bulldogs. The Lady Dawgs notched three more runs in the sixth inning to end with a victory of 8-3.

Virgin Valley got nine hits on the day. Frei led the Bulldog offense with 3 of 4 hits and 2 RBIs. Price got 2 hits in 3 at-bats, and brought 2 runners home. Natalie Plancarte, Ana Tausinga, Marlie Wakefield and Toone all got one hit each in the game.

Price pitched the victory going all seven innings. She allowed 4 hits and struck out 9.
The victory led to the Bulldogs’ first meeting with Fernley on Friday. The Vaqueros had destroyed Boulder City in their first round game the day before, 10-0.

So with the preliminaries over, it was time for the two #1 seeds to do battle. After a hard-fought pitcher’s duel, the Bulldogs pulled off the win 2-1.

Price took the win in the defensive challenge, going all seven innings and allowing only two hits while striking out 6.

The Bulldogs put the first score up in the 3rd when Plancarte hit a single to left field, scoring Frei.
In the fifth inning, Price stepped up and drove her 2nd homerun for the tournament out of the Vaquero field bringing the Bulldogs to a 2-0 lead.

In an emotional 7th inning, the Vaqueros put their first run on the board when they drew a walk with bases loaded.

Then, in the final play of the game, with two outs, the Vaqueros batter hit a line drive to Plancarte at 3rd base. She fielded the ball and made a beautiful throw to 1st baseman Tausinga for the final out and the win.

With the loss, the Fernley team had to drop to the consolation bracket and face North Valleys who had eliminated Boulder City from the tournament the day before. The Vaqueros beat North Valleys 7-5. This set the table for a possible double-header between the Fernley and Virgin Valley on Saturday.

In game 1 the Lady Bulldogs stayed in it until the end, but the Vaqueros pulled away late in a 6-2 victory. It was the first loss for Virgin Valley since playing Bishop Gorman on March 5th, ending a 33 game win streak for the Bulldogs.

Fernley edged ahead scoring two runs in the third inning. But in the next frame, Virgin Valley tied things up at two.

The top of the 6th was a rough inning for the Bulldog defense. Between some good hits by the Vaqueros, a couple of walks and some Bulldog errors, the Vaqueros pulled ahead, 5-2. Fernley scored one more run in the final inning to make the final score.

Despite the loss, the Virgin Valley team outhit the Vaqueros 6-5 in the game. Tausinga led the Dawgs with two hits. Frei, Price, Toone and Destiny Moaei each got a hit in the game.

The two teams took a moment and then launched into game 2 of the series which would determine the State Championship.

The Bulldogs fell behind early in this round with the Vaqueros outscoring them 7-2 in the first three innings.

Then the Bulldogs began a long fight, attempting a slow, methodical comeback which spread out over the last four innings of the game. The Dawgs put up one run per inning. But there wasn’t enough innings to make the win. In the end, they fell just short of the prize losing the final game 6-7.

Once again, Virgin Valley outhit Fernley in the loss, 10-9. Brooklin Montoya had her run of the bases when she hit a homerun in the fifth inning. Price, Wakefield and Moaei each collected two hits for the Bulldogs. Frei, Tausinga and Ari Easton put up one hit apiece in the game. Moaei led the team in RBIs with 2.

Price spent 6 inning in the pitchers circle allowing nine hits and striking out 5.

Though the Bulldogs season is over, the momentum for the team will be high going into next year. This dream team will be losing only Alex Covarrubias and Marli Wakefield to graduation. That leaves 13 to come back next year all of whom have an epic season of play together and a trip to the State Finals behind them. Keep an eye on the Lady Bulldogs in the spring of 2023.