On Friday, March 9, the Battle Mountain High School Lady Longhorn softball team traveled to Pershing County High school to play four games over the two-day tournament. The Longhorn softball team split the four games, finishing the weekend with a 2-2 record.
Longhorns vs.
PCHS Mustangs
The Longhorns struggled in their first game of the season falling behind early and failing to come back in a 17-3 loss to Pershing County on Friday. The defending state champion Mustangs looked like they were still in mid-season form hitting the ball in high volume.
Kira Smith was on the mound for the Longhorns, allowing 15 hits and 17 runs over four innings. Smith continued to battle with the talented Mustang hitter and struck out four in the game. Jenna Leavitt went 2-for-2 at the plate to lead Battle Mountain in hits in the contest, including two runs batted in (RBI).
Longhorns vs. Elko Indians
Directly after the loss to Pershing County, the Longhorns took the field against the Elko Indians. The Longhorns struck first in the game with four runs crossing home plate in the top half of the first inning. Elko did not back down, though, and tied the game at four after one inning of play.
Longhorns senior Marissa Rogers collected four hits in six at-bats to help lead the Longhorns to victory. Rogers doubled in the first, doubled in the second, singled in the sixth, and homered in the seventh leading to a 21-15 win for Battle Mountain.
The Longhorns secured a commanding lead in the sixth inning, scoring nine runs against the Indians. Things looked bleak early in the contest when the Longhorns trailed 9-5 struggling to get the runners around the bases. The game turned thanks to Rogers’ good day at bat, as well as clutch pitching by Jackie LaRiva and Kira Smith.
On Saturday, March 10, the Longhorns and the Elko Indians met for a rematch in another hard-fought contest. Battle Mountain Longhorns got things moving in the first inning, with Alma Chavira driving in one run when she tripled in her first at-bat of the day. The Longhorns put up four runs in the first, second and third innings of the game, leading to a Longhorn 12-1 lead early.
The offensive firepower by Battle Mountain was led by Carlee Petersen, Julia Ramirez, Ashlynn Newkirk and Keetna Smith, who all drove in runs early in the game. Rogers again continued to hit the ball well over the weekend adding another four hits against the Indians. Rogers tripled in the first, doubled in the second, doubled in the third and homered in the sixth to help hold off the Indians’ late comeback. The Longhorns defeated the Indians by a final score of 15-12 after allowing seven runs in the bottom half of the fifth inning.
Longhorns vs
Wooster Colts
The final game of the weekend pitted the Longhorns against Wooster High School out of Reno. The Lady Longhorns struggled to score early in the contest against the Colts and Wooster took advantage of the opportunity, scoring the first three runs of the game in the bottom half of the first inning.
The Longhorns cut the lead to 3-1 and held the Colts scoreless till the fifth inning. During the top half of the fifth inning, the Longhorns cut the Colts lead down to one, bringing the score to 3-2. Unfortunately, Wooster scored another three runs, putting Battle Mountain behind 6-2 going into the final two innings.
Carlee Petersen, Sruti Bhakta, Julia Ramirez, and Rogers all collected multiple hits for Battle Mountain, with Petersen leading the team with three hits in three at-bats against Wooster. The Longhorns lost to the Wooster Colts 8-4 despite out-hitting Wooster ten to six.
The next contest for the Longhorns takes place in Battle Mountain where the ladies will take on the West Wendover Wolverines. The games start at 2 p.m. on Friday, March 16.
