WINNEMUCCA - From the first day of practice at the end of February, it was a given that the Lowry High School varsity softball team was going to be a talented but young group of ladies.
After some growing pains in the first month of the season, playing 18 of their first 19 games on the road - the Lady Bucks are starting to find their groove.
Lowry (11-8 overall, 8-1 Division I-A North, 4-2 Ruby Mountain League) has outscored its last six opponents 81-1, including a three-game sweep of Spring Creek last weekend, where the Lady Bucks blanked the Spartans 40-0.
Lowry defeated Spring Creek 11-0 on Friday, April 5, and swept a doubleheader on Saturday 24-0 and 5-0.
"I like where we are at right now," said LHS head coach Ty Lucas. "There is still room for improvement, but I like the way we have played in the last couple of weeks. We needed three more wins to keep pace with the other teams at the top of the league."
In the opening game of the series, Lowry senior Jordan Mecham was nearly perfect in the circle. She struck out a season-high 16 batters, including all nine outs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. The only blemish on the day was a one-out in the fourth inning by the Spartans' Larissa Sanchez.
"We went in wanting to make sure we got the wins," Lucas said. "Jordan was just dominant in the circle. It's a good feeling when your pitcher gets 16 of your outs."
Lowry scored its only run it would need in the top of the fourth when Shelby McKinnon scored after leading off the game with a walk. Kylee McClellan plated her after reaching base on an error.
Jaecee Munger plated the second run in the second inning after leading off with a triple and the Lady Bucks began to pull away in the fifth inning. Alyssa Dendary provided a two-RBI double that scored Carli Evatz and Ere Higbee and Dendary came around to plate the fifth run of the game on a base hit by Taylor Schwartz.
Lowry tacked on a single run in the in the sixth inning on a RBI-single by Evatz that scored Allison Barron. The Lady Bucks put the game out of reach in the top of the seventh on the strength of a two-run home run by Munger. McClellan and Dendary also had RBIs in the frame.
"It took us a little while to get going offensively," added the coach. "We were hitting the ball hard but it was at someone. We made some adjustments and were able to find some holes. What I was pleased about in all three games was our defense. We had one error in three games. Anytime Spring Creek had something going, we shut them down. That was nice to see. It was one of the things we worked on in practice."
Lowry had nine hits on the day, with three from Evatz and two by Munger.
The softball diamond turned into a merry-go-round in Saturday's opener as the Lady Bucks pounded out 16 hits and scored a season-high 24 runs.
Lowry kicked the game off with six runs in the first inning and the rout was on from there. McKinnon, Evatz, Higbee and McClellan reached base and scored, Munger had the two of her six RBIs and Lexie Coleman and Mecham each had RBIs in the frame.
Munger gave Lowry a 7-0 lead in the second inning as she walked with the bases loaded and the power show came after that with three home runs in the next three innings.
McKinnon had a two-run home run in part of a eight-run third inning and Schwartz added a two-RBI double as well. The Lady Bucks scored three more runs on wild pitches.
Higbee added to the long-ball count with her two-run shot in the fourth inning and Coleman had a two-RBI double in the fourth inning to help increase the lead to 21-0.
Munger closed out the scoring with a three-run home run in the fifth inning, as part of her six RBIs in the game.
"It was nice to see Jaecee break out like she did," Lucas said. "She is hitting the ball well and we need that kind of production from her."
Evatz had three hits in the contest, while Higbee, McClellan and Schwartz each had two. Evatz and Schwartz each scored four runs and Higbee, Dendary and Munger scored three runs apiece.
Mecham and Schwartz shared the pitching duties, with Mecham getting the victory in three innings of work. She allowed one hit and struck out three. Schwartz threw the final two innings, where she allowed one hit, while striking out one and walking one.
The nightcap was similar to the first two games as Spring Creek had trouble putting runners of base. The Spartans had two runners reach in the first inning, one on a hit and another on an error, only to see Mecham be perfect in the final six innings.
She struck out eight on her way to her 10th victory of the season. The senior also helped herself out as she provided the game-winning hit in the second inning that scored Munger.
The Lady Bucks used a pair of hits by Evatz and Higbee in the fifth inning to push the advantage to 4-0. Evatz added her second RBI of the game an inning later with a base hit to score McKinnon for the final run of the game.
Evatz was a perfect 4-for-4 with two runs scored and a RBI and McKinnon added two hits and two runs scored.
Lowry steps out of Division I-A North play to host West Wendover in a doubleheader on Saturday at noon. The Lady Bucks have clinched a playoff spot in the opening round of the regional tournament. Fernley is currently undefeated in the Division I-A North at 6-0, Churchill County is 5-1 and Elko and Dayton are both 4-2. Lowry holds the tiebreakers over Churchill County and Dayton and can secure a home playoff series with two wins over Elko or two losses by Dayton.
"I was looking for our offense to match our defense and pitching and we did that," Lucas said. "We are going to use this weekend to get some of our younger girls some time that haven't this year. We still want to be sharp and get ready for our series against Elko. That is the big one left on our schedule."
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