After playing four games earlier in the week in the Reno/Sparks area and being forced indoors for another two due to a snowstorm, the Lowry High School softball team was back on the field this past Saturday at North Valleys High School in Reno.
The reigning 3A state champions won both games 11-1 and 16-15 in eight innings. The two teams played in the Northern 3A and 3A state title game in 2023. Lowry dropped to 7-14 on the year.
North Valleys 11, Lowry 1
North Valleys took advantage two errors with two outs to score three runs in the bottom of the second inning. The Panthers did not trail after that.
The Lady Bucks’ lone run came in the third inning when Crisslyn Rodriguez scored on a wild pitch. Rodriguez led off the frame with a single. The Panthers got a run back in the bottom of the third inning and took advantage of three more Lowry errors in the fifth inning to score seven times and win 11-1.
Rodriguez had the lone hit for Lowry and Savannah Stoker suffered the loss in the circle. Of the 11 runs allowed, two were earned.
North Valleys 16, Lowry 15 (8 Innings)
The nightcap on Saturday was another offensive shootout, as the teams combined for 31 runs and 40 hits, as North Valleys scored a run in the bottom of the eighth inning to win.
The back-and-forth battle started from the start, as Stoker singled home Adalyn Entwistle in the top of the first inning, followed by RBI singles from Hayden Case and Natalya Guizar.
The Lady Bucks led 4-0 in the second inning when Case was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to allow Crisslyn Rodriguez to score.
North Valleys got two of the runs back in the bottom of the second and plated three more in the third to go in front 5-4.
Lowry tied the game in the top of the fourth, when Stoker scored on a wild pitch. That momentum did not last long, as North Valleys scored five runs in the bottom of the fourth to lead 10-5.
The Lady Bucks used the long ball to tie the game at 10 in the fifth inning, as Cambria Tisue collected her first home run of the season, with a two-run shot, followed by a three-run homer from Stoker, which was her ninth of the season and 49th of her career.
As quick as the Lady Bucks tied the contest, the Panthers scored four runs in the bottom of the fifth to lead 14-10. The craziness continued as Lowry took advantage of three North Valleys errors in the sixth inning to tie the game at 14-14, when the Panthers wen back in front with a single run in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Lowry sent the game into extra innings with a single run in the seventh with the aid of a North Valleys error.
With two outs in the eighth inning, Entwistle singled and Stoker was intentionally walked for a second time in the game but the rally ended there after a strikeout.
North Valleys used a pair of hits in the bottom of the eighth inning to walk off with the winner.
Entwistle had a team-high four hits, with Stoker and Case each collecting three hits. The duo drove in six runs. Maddison McClure and Guizar each had two hits.
Lowry travels to Spring Creek on Friday for a single game at 3 p.m. and a doubleheader on Saturday at 11 a.m.