WINNEMUCCA -After 11 convincing wins in a row, a team is bound to have a let-down here or there.
The Lowry High School softball team has been on a high for the last month and the Lady Bucks completed a three-game sweep of Elko this past weekend to clinch the No. 2 seed in the Division I-A North regional tournament.
With nothing on the line, Lowry played host to Battle Mountain in a doubleheader on Tuesday. The Lady Longhorns jumped out to one-run leads in each of the first two games, but the Lady Bucks fought back to win both games 11-1 and 3-2.
"That was not our team. That was not us today," said LHS head coach Ty Lucas. "There are no excuses for it. Sometimes it is emotionally hard to get up for these games. We are better than that in terms of our emotions and our attitudes. We have to be ready to go every time we are on the field."
Battle Mountain took advantage of one Lowry mistake in the opener, as the Lady Longhorns' Kylie Sondermann hit a leadoff home run off the Lady Bucks' Jordan Mecham with two strikes on her.
Mecham was nearly perfect from there, as the senior struck out nine of the next 10 batters she faced. Mecham struck out the side in the first, second and third innings. Her only blemishes after the first inning were a walk in the third and single by Daisy Hernandez in the fifth. Mecham finished with 13 strikeouts and one walk.
The Lady Bucks jumped on to the scoreboard in the bottom of the second, with Kylee McClellan leading off with a single. Alyssa Dendary reached on a fielder's choice and Jaecee Munger provided the eventual winning runs, with her double to score both McClellan and Dendary.
Jorden Raynor made the score 3-1 after a sacrifice that brought home Munger. The inning concluded as Alyssa Jones and Shelby McKinnon scored after a throwing error by Hernandez at third base with Carli Evatz up to bat, giving Lowry a 5-1 lead.
Evatz began a five-run rally in the fifth inning, with her leadoff single. McClellan drove her home with a triple and she scored on a wild pitch to make the score 7-1. Dendary kept the inning alive with a single and Munger followed with a walk. The Lady Bucks were helped out with an error on Battle Mountain with Taylor Schwartz at the plate. That miscue pushed Dendary across the plate. Mecham helped herself out as she picked up her second hit of the game that plated Schwartz for a 10-1 advantage.
Lowry ended the game on the 10-run rule in the sixth inning, as McClellan singled with two outs. Dendary followed with a double to the fence to close out the game.
McClellan had three hits for the Lady Bucks and Dendary and Mecham each had two.
Battle Mountain jumped out to another 1-0 lead in the nightcap, but in a different way. With one out, Gabby Penola reached base on an error and she was driven home off a line drive double down the third baseline.
Lowry grabbed the lead in the second inning as Munger led off with a single and advanced to second base on a stolen base. With two outs in the frame, Jorden Raynor tied the game at 1-1 with her double to the outfield. Raynor eventually scored on the same play as the throw from the outfield went into the Lowry dugout. That allowed Raynor to score from third base.
Evatz provided the Lady Bucks with their final run in the bottom of the third inning. The senior singled to lead off and after a sacrifice by Ere Higbee, Evatz eventually scored on a wild pitch.
The Lady Longhorns cut the deficit to a single run in the fifth inning as McKenzie Huddleston was hit in the knee by a pitch. With Ashley Haney running for her, Kali Kester followed with a pinch-hit single to score Haney. However, Dendary was able to retire the final three batters to end the rally.
Mecham came on to pitch the sixth and seventh innings to earn the save. She struck out three of the six batters she faced. Schwartz picked up the win for the Lady Bucks. The junior pitched four innings and allowed one run on two hits. She struck out six and walked one.
Evatz collected three of Lowry's eight hits, while McKinnon, McClellan, Munger, Raynor and Jones each had one.
"If we want to be the team we want to be, we have handle our emotions no matter who we play," Lucas said. "We can't play down to other teams levels. We have to play our game."
Lowry travels to Susanville, Calif., this weekend for a two-day tournament that will see them play five games. The Lady Bucks are scheduled to play Enterprise, Calif., today at 2 p.m., Central Valley, Calif., at 5:20 p.m. and Corning, Calif. at 7 p.m.
Lowry faces Red Bluff, Calif., Saturday at 9:40 a.m. and Lassen, Calif., at 11:20 a.m.
"Having this tournament at the end of the year is nice for us," Lucas said. "We get to see some different teams. I want us to get back to finding our identity. We are looking at this being the first of four weeks of playoff softball for us."
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