If you don’t like the weather in Lovelock just wait awhile. Lovelock hosted a preseason baseball and softball tournament last weekend. Thursday, the athletes played in springlike conditions. Saturday spectators huddled under blankets as a snowstorm nixed the closing games and sent Portola’s softball team home.
“The cold weather definitely made it tough not only for our pitchers but for the whole team as well,” said Bela Rosas, the Lady Mustang’s shortstop.
“Bela had a good weekend to start her senior year,” said coach Jordan McKinney.
The Mustangs were down nine against Portola. However, they came back to tie the score by the top of the second inning. Officials canceled the game because of the snow.
Thursday, the Mustangs beat Sparks (10-9). Friday they knocked off Carlin (10-7) before losing to Quincy (16-7).
“First games of the season are to get the jitters out and our girls did just that,” said McKinney, now beginning her third year as head coach. “It’s truly only my second since Covid shut us down last year,” she added.
McKinney tried out some new pitchers – Miya Gallagher and Mady Grenz. Taylor Garland pitched against Portola. “I put in some different combinations of girls in multiple situations to see what we really have.”
As assistant coach Drew Wanner noted, it’s a young team. Some of the girls, like Aaliyah Allen and Kaylen Halverson have not played high school softball before.
“Aaliyah caught for us a lot this weekend. As a freshman new to high school softball, she stepped up to the challenge and impressed me. Kaylen had a spectacular first few games and is going to crush the ball this season,” said McKinney.
Meanwhile, on the boys side, a couple of freshmen showed promise on the pitcher’s mound. In two games, Wyatt Hughes and Travis Donaldson gave up only one run as starting pitchers. According to coach Jared Jesen, Tyler Miller and Conner Fecht played well on first base.
Nonetheless, the Mustangs lost to Battle Mountain (15-2), Portola (15-1) and Quincy (17-1).
“We had three rough games but showed signs of a lot of potential,” said Jensen. He noted that, against Battle Mountain, the score was 5-2 until the Longhorns executed five runs at the top of the seventh inning.
Against Portola, the Mustangs started out up 1-0. The third quarter ended at 2-1, with Mustangs down by only one point.
“I was impressed with the performances of our young kids. We made a lot of young mistakes but showed glimpses of being a solid ball team by the end of the year,” said Jensen. He was pleased that the younger team members got quality playing time over the weekend tournament.
“We have a long season ahead of us and I’m looking forward to the growth and potential we could see out of our guys,” he said.
Friday, Mar. 11, the Mustang ball players travel to Virginia City for a non-league match-up.
Monday, Mar. 14, the Mustangs begin league play. Pershing will host the first game of a triple-header against Incline starting at 4 p.m.
