Lowry’s Natayla Guizar puts the ball in play during Friday’s game against Fernley in Winnemucca.
Fresh off a victory over Fernley in the 3A state girls basketball title game, the Lowry High School softball team hosted the Vaqueros in three-game series in the Northern 3A East.
However, the clocks turned back to this fall and the scores looked more like football scores as the two teams combined for 81 runs in three games.
Fernley won the opener on Friday 16-13 and swept the two games on Saturday 14-14 and 18-16 in eight innings in the finale.
Lowry has lost five of its last six games and dropped to 1-5 in league play and 7-8 overall.
The last time the Lady Bucks had a losing season was 2008 when they went 15-19.
Lowry’s Hayden Case moves off second base during Friday’s game against Fernley.
Fernley 16,
Lowry 13
Crooked numbers in innings were commonplace in the series opener on Friday, as the teams combined 29 runs, 34 hits, 11 errors, 19 strikeouts and eight walks.
After giving up a pair of runs in the top of the first inning, Lowry answered back with three runs in the bottom of the frame.
Savannah Stoker trimmed the deficit to 2-1 on an RBI-double that scored freshman Adalyn Entwistle.
Hayden Case and Maddison McClure followed with doubles to five the Lady Bucks a 3-2 advantage. Lowry added a single run in the third inning on a bases loaded walk to Stoker that plated Crisslyn Rodriguez.
Fernley tied the game in with two runs in the third inning and led 5-4 after a single run in the fourth. Lowry tied the game at 5 all in the fourth inning on an RBI-single by McClure.
Both teams scored a pair of runs in the fifth inning to keep the contest tied at 7-7, when they combined for 15 runs in the sixth inning.
The Vaqueros plated nine runs to go in front 16-7, when McClure and Isabella Upton started a six-run rally with singles. Cambria Tisue walked and Rodriguez doubled to close the gap to 16-9. An error by Fernley led to wo more runs and a single by Stoker and a double by Case moved the score to 16-13.
However, the rally ended a batter later. Lowry went down in order in the seventh to end the game.
The Lady Bucks pounded out 16 hits, three each by Entwistle, Rodriguez, Case and McClure. Stoker had two hits and a team high four RBI but also suffered the loss in the circle.
Fernley 14,
Lowry 4
Fernley led from the start in Saturday’s first game, scoring four runs in the opening inning and led 11-1 after three innings of play. Lowry came back to plate three runs in the fourth inning but was not enough to avoid the run-rule loss.
Bailey Peterson, Stoker, Guizar and McClure each had two hits. Guizar and Stoker split time in the circle, with Guizar starting and suffering the loss.
Fernley 18,
Lowry 16
(8 Innings)
The finale went into extra innings after Lowry came back from a four-run deficit in the seventh inning. In another shootout, the two rivals combined 34 runs, 35 hits, four home runs, six triples, eight doubles and eight errors.
The contest was tied at 7-7 after two innings of play when the Vaqueros scored three times in the third inning and once more in the fourth to lead 11-7.
Stoker closed that gap to 11-9 with a two-run home run that also scored Entwistle.
It was Stoker’s fifth of the year and 45th in her career. That leaves her one short of tying the Nevada record for career home runs.
In the bottom of the fifth, Elisabeth George doubled home Tisue to trail 12-10, when Fernley added two runs in the top of the seventh to go in front 14-10.
Lowry’s four-run rally in the seventh began with a single from Guizar and a triple by Rodriguez.
Lowry closed the gap to 14-12 off a Fernley error and then tied the game at 14-14 on an RBI-triple by Stoker, who scored on an error on the same play.
Fernley used a two-run home run in the eighth inning to lead 18-14, when Peterson closed the gap to 18-15 with a solo shot of her own.
Later in the inning, Guizar stole home but the rally ended there.
Tisue and Stoker had three hits apiece and George, Entwistle, Rodriguez, Peterson and McClure each had two hits.
Lowry has a bye week in the league schedule but will still be busy with six games, weather permitting.
Lowry traveled to Sparks on Tuesday for a doubleheader with Spanish Springs.
The Lady Bucks played Manogue and McQueen on Wednesday and travel to Reno on Saturday to play North Valleys.
Lowry returns to league play in Spring Creek on April 12-13.