WINNEMUCCA - For the past month, the Lowry High School varsity softball team has gone about its business in a manner most teams in northern Nevada have not.
In its previous eight games, the Lady Bucks have outscored their opponents 123-2, after learning to mesh as a young group to begin the season.
With playoff implications on the line, Lowry played host to Elko this past weekend. The Indians were coming off a three-game sweep of White Pine, a squad that beat the Lady Bucks twice earlier this year. Elko thought it had a chance to end Lowry's eight-game winning streak, but Lowry had other ideas.
After trailing 2-0 in the first inning on Friday afternoon, Lowry dominated the series, holding the Indians to two runs in the next 20 innings. The Lady Bucks came back to win 8-3 on Friday and finished the sweep on Saturday with victories of 2-0 and 8-1.
"It was impressive the way we played this weekend," said LHS head coach Ty Lucas. "That is what we are looking for. We want to get strong in every inning of every game. It starts with the small things. This is where we wanted to be at this time of the season. I wanted to see us emotionally to stay up for three games and match that with our play. Elko is a good team and we were expecting three seven-inning battles. To sweep them is a credit to our girls' work ethic."
With the three victories, Lowry can finish no worse than second in the Division I-A North. The Lady Bucks are currently 11-1 in league play and they are done with their conference slate of games. Fernley, the only team to beat Lowry in league play, is 8-1 and has three games left with Dayton. If the Dust Devils were to win one game, Lowry would be crowned the regular season champion.
"We are a much different team than we were at the start of the season," said the coach. "We knew it was going to be a long process. Again, the way they are picking up things and executing is exactly what we are looking for. The process is not over yet."
In the series opener, Elko strung together a couple of hits to take an early 2-0 lead. Whitney Bilbao hit a line drive off the glove of Jaecee Munger that allowed her to reach base, and Aly Freitag reached on a dropped third strike. The Indians took advantage of the extra base runner as Bailey Heathman followed with a base hit to give Elko the advantage.
The lead was short-lived as Lowry answered with four runs in the bottom of the first. Carli Evatz, Ere Higbee and Kylee McClellan had consecutive hits to load the bases and Alyssa Dendary followed with a two-strike triple to right field to clear the bases and give the Lady Bucks a 3-2 lead. Lowry tacked on another run on a ground out by Jaecee Munger to score Dendary.
"That was a great at bat by Alyssa," Lucas said. "We worked on two-strike approaches and hitting to the opposite field in practice. We had quite a few at bats where we got hits with two strikes or two outs. I was very pleased with our mental approach the entire weekend."
Lowry (16-8 overall, 11-1 Division I-A North, 9-2 Ruby Mountain League) added a single run in the bottom of the third inning as Higbee reached base on a fielder's choice and scored after an error and wild pitch. The Lady Bucks increased the advantage to 7-2 in the bottom of the fourth on the strength of a RBI-double by Lexie Coleman that scored Taylor Schwartz, who led off the frame with a single. Coleman later scored on an illegal pitch.
The Indians got one of the runs back in the top of the fifth, but Lowry countered in the bottom of the fifth on a booming home run by McClellan that cut through the strong winds.
Jordan Mecham picked up the win in the circle for the Lady Bucks as she went the distance in the circle. She struck out eight, including six in the first two innings and did not allow a walk. She gave up five hits and three runs.
Evatz, Coleman and McClellan each had two hits for Lowry.
The first game on Saturday took an economical 51 minutes to play as both pitchers were dominant in the circle. The Lady Bucks scored the only runs of the contest in the second inning on just one hit.
Munger led off the frame with a double and Schwartz followed with a walk. With one out, Mecham helped herself out, scoring Munger on a ground out. Shelby McKinnon came to plate and added an insurance run with her sacrifice bunt that plated Schwartz.
Mecham scattered three hits in her seven innings of work and also hit one batter. The Indians had no runners go past second base in the game. Mecham struck out seven and walked none.
After scoring its two runs in the second inning, Lowry had just one runner reach base in the final four innings.
"We were just off at the plate by a little bit," Lucas said. "However, our defense and pitching stepped up for us. If someone has an off game, a teammate is there to pick them up."
The nightcap was all Lowry as it got its offense back in gear starting with a RBI-double by McClellan to score Higbee in the first inning. The Lady Bucks added two runs in the bottom of the third inning, when Higbee scored on a wild pitch after reaching base on a double. McClellan gave Lowry a 3-0 lead after she scored on a dropped third strike.
The Lady Bucks' advantage grew to 6-0 in the bottom of the fourth, with the rally starting on a triple by McKinnon. The sophomore scored on a sacrifice fly by Evatz and Lowry broke the game open on a two-run home run by McClellan.
Elko's only run of the game came in the top of the fifth inning on a solo home run by Alyssa Stevens. That was only one of three hits that Mecham allowed in her seven innings of work. The senior continued her stellar weekend with two strikeouts and one walk.
Lowry answered back with two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning as Munger, Schwartz and Coleman had consecutive hits with Coleman's single driving home two runs.
Lowry is back in action today at home with a doubleheader against Battle Mountain starting at 3 p.m. The Lady Bucks travel to Susanville, Calif., on Friday and Saturday, where they will play five games in two days.
"We need to take care of business on Tuesday and get ready for this weekend," Lucas said. "We are taking this weekend as the start of the playoffs for us. We are playing well right now, but I don't want us to peak for a couple of more weeks. This group of girls has come a long way from the start of the season. We knew it was going to be a learning process when we started."[[In-content Ad]]
