WINNEMUCCA - As the season began for the Lowry High School varsity softball team there was some unfinished business left over from a season before.
Even though the Lady Bucks beat 3A rivals Elko and Spring Creek twice, they were left out of the playoffs when they were swept by White Pine to end the regular season.
The Lady Bobcats still remain on the Lady Bucks schedule to close out this regular season, but those three match ups will be for pride now after Lowry clinched the top 3A seed in the Ruby Mountain League this past Saturday in Winnemucca. The Lady Bucks will face Truckee or South Tahoe May 11 - 12 in Winnemucca. The worst Lowry could finish is 11-4 and the best Elko could do is 11-4, but the Lady Bucks beat the Indians twice and hold the tiebreaker. Elko has to beat Spring Creek once to advance to the playoffs.
After spending more than a month on the road and travelling over 1,800 miles to Sacramento, Calif., Boise, Idaho, and West Wendover, Lowry (15-9 overall, 11-1 Ruby Mountain) made its home debut against Spring Creek. The Lady Bucks did not disappoint the home crowd, embarrassing the Spartans 24-1 on Friday, and finishing a sweep of their rival on Saturday by winning 9-4 and 8-1.
"We got the job done," said LHS head coach Ty Lucas. "It was a great weekend for us. I anticipated Spring Creek would be on fire and ready to go after what we did to them Friday. I wouldn't expect anything less from them. It took us a while to get going on Saturday but once we settled down and realized it's the same game we have been playing. We just needed to execute the little things. We are starting to learn that they do not need to panic and we know how to compete and battle."
Lowry pounded out 19 hits in Friday's opener and had its first eight batters of the game reach base, with seven scoring. Shelby McKinnon led off with a single, and triples by Angie Herrera and Madi Gonzalez followed to make the score 2-0. The hit barrage continued with consecutive singles by Hana Etcheverry and Ere Higbee.
Heather McElvain reached base on a fielder's choice and Jordan Mecham reached on an error to keep the rally going. A single by Carli Evatz upped the score to 6-0, and Sydnie Sundahl finished off the inning with a sacrifice fly to score Mecham.
Spring Creek scored its only run of the game in the top of the second on two hits. However Mecham retired the next nine batters to end the game, as she picked up the win. The junior allowed just the two hits and struck out six, while walking three.
Lowry blew the game open with 12 runs in the bottom of the third that saw 16 batters come to the plate. McElvain and Mecham each had two hits in the frame, while Sundahl drove in two runs and scored twice. Shelby McKinnon also scored twice and Gonzalez and Evatz each had run-scoring singles.
The Lady Bucks added five runs in the fourth on consecutive hits by Evatz, Sundahl, McKinnon and Herrera.
Gonzalez and Higbee led Lowry with three hits apiece, while McKinnon, Herrera, McElvain, Mecham and Evatz each had two.
"We got a nice pitching performance from Jordan and were just hitting the ball hard," Lucas said. "Our hitting is really starting to come around. Our offense has been the biggest improvement all year."
If Lowry thought Saturday's games were going to be similar it was wrong as Spring Creek bounced back to lead 2-0 in game one of the doubleheader. The Spartans put together two hits and took advantage of two Lowry errors and walked to take the early lead in the third inning. The Lady Bucks cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the third, as Taylor Johnson scored on a wild pitch after leading off with a double.
Lowry opened up some breathing room in the fourth inning, scoring seven runs on the strength of doubles by Etcheverry, Evatz, McKinnon and Herrera and a triple by Gonzalez. Spring Creek countered with a run in the top of the fifth, but Lowry quickly answered back in the bottom of the fifth as Sundahl singled home Higbee. The Spartans hit a solo home run in the seventh, but Kayla Doyle retired the final two batters to pick up the win.
The senior went the distance and allowed four runs (two earned) on four hits. She struck out four and walked six. Sundahl and Higbee each had two hits for the Lady Bucks.
"Kayla did a good job for us and it was a different Spring Creek team from the day before," said the coach. "They were more aggressive at the plate."
In game two of the doubleheader, Mecham had a no hitter going through six innings, before Spring Creek picked up two hits and scored its only run in the seventh inning. Mecham struck out six, walked one and also hit a batter.
Lowry used a two-RBI single by Higbee in the top of the first to build a 3-0 lead and never looked back. Higbee followed that with a triple to score Etcheverry in the third inning, with Higbee scoring on a ground out by Cassie Klemish. The Lady Bucks added three runs in the fifth inning to put the game out of reach.
Higbee had three hits and McKinnon and Herrera had two hits apiece.
"This was truly a team victory in all three games," Lucas said. "This weekend was all about team. This weekend was our biggest goal and makes up for quite a bit going back to last year."
Lowry returns home this weekend to host White Pine, beginning Friday at 3 p.m. The two schools play a doubleheader Saturday at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. The JV teams will play in between at noon on Saturday.
"These are games we are looking at to fine tune our game for the regional," Lucas said. "The bigger picture is what we have after White Pine. The main thing is that we are in and we have a bigger goal in mind instead of worrying about a grudge match with White Pine."
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