Prep roundup: Carson softball drops one, wins one

The Carson softball team were on both sides of the fence Friday at a tournament in Sacramento.

The Senators were led by Cassie Vondrak in the first game, who threw a no-hitter in a 10-1 win over El Camino before being one-hit in the second game of the day in an 8-1 loss to Davis.

"Cassie threw a great ball game like Daria Leid did the night before and bats were popping and then we had a little bit of a role reversal in that second game," Carson coach Scott Vickery said.

The loss put Carson in a three-way tie for the lead in their division after pool play and had to go to runs scored for the tiebreaker. It fell to the third seed by just one run and can fair no better than ninth place and no worse than 12th out of the 16 teams.

Vondrak struck out 10 batters in the game and the one run scored on a pass ball on El Camino's attempt to steal home.

Offensively, she added a 4-for-4 hitting performance along with three RBI and a home run.

Kristin Winthrow went 3-for-5 with two runs and two RBI and Lauren Knorzer went 2-for-2 with an RBI and a double.

In the second game, Leid took the loss after giving up seven runs off of seven hits in the second inning. The junior picked up Carson's 3-2 win Thursday.

Carson JV splits two games in Reed tourney

The Carson High JV softball team split two games Friday at the Reed Tournament. The Senators won the first game 8-1 against Fallon.

Allison VonDrak was the winning pitcher allowing a hit and striking out four. Christina Gallegos got the saving striking out two in one inning of work.

Scoring for Carson was Ashley Saarem, Taylor-Rae Canfield, Hannah Winder, Emily Collins, Taya Rains and Kristalei Wolfe, who scored twice.

VonDrak had two hits with Farem, Canfield and Collins also having hits.

In the second game the Senators fell to Spanish Springs, 4-1. Gallegos took the loss pitching a complete game while striking out eight.

"She pitched very well for us," coach Sherri Kelley said.

Morgan Kleine had a hit and Caitlin Sinclair had a hit and a run for the Senators (1-1).

Carson returns to action today against Reed at 10 a.m.

Carson JV baseball teams falls again

The Carson junior varsity team fell 8-2 Friday night to Spanish Springs, its second loss in as many games.

The Senators were edged Thursday 9-8 to North Valleys.

Douglas takes early win against Damonte

After spotting the Damonte Ranch baseball team a two-run lead in the first inning, Douglas sophomore Kameron VanWinkle settled down to toss a complete-game win in a non-league matchup between two Sierra League heavyeights Friday afternoon.

VanWinkle struck out four and walked two for the Tigers to help Douglas to a 7-5 win in the Mike Bearman Memorial Tournament at Damonte Ranch.

The win came after a 7-3 loss to Santa Clara, Calif., earlier in the day and helped propel the Tigers into Saturday's tournament championship game at 4 p.m.

"This was a good early-season win," Douglas coach John Glover said.

"I think after losing this morning, we needed to bounce back. They swung the bats a lot better this afternoon and that was nice to see."

VanWinkle's performance was key because it helped the Tigers save what is left of its pitching staff for Saturday's game.

"He stayed under 100 pitches in a seven-inning game, which is really tough to do for a high school kid," Glover said. "We're excited to see that early in the year from him. He's going to have to pitch a lot for us this year. He did a great job today and that gets us into tomorrow with a little bit of pitching left. It was huge."

VanWinkle had to work to wrap up the game on the mound, hitting the first batter of the seventh with a pitch and surrendering a one-out single that put runners on first and second. A double and a sacrifice fly brought two runs across and Damonte's top hitter, Cody Stevens to the plate with Douglas leading 7-5.

"I ran down to (pitching) coach (Rick) Kester and we talked about intentionally walking Stevens," Glover said. "We didn't want to put the tying run on base with the winning run at the plate so we just pitched to him. It was just one of those things.

"We know he is one of the best hitters in the Northern 4A and he had us concerned there but Kameron came through."

VanWinkle worked the count to 2-2 before inducing a slow-bouncer back to the mound, which he fired to first baseman Tyler Hoelzen to end the game.

Douglas got on the board in the top of the first when left fielder Tyler May led the game off with a single to right and center fielder Tanner Thomas followed with a double to deep center that brought May home.

Damonte answered with a three-run bottom half but Douglas slowly chipped away at the scoreboard with a run-scoring fielder's choice from Tim Rudnick in the top of the third and a pair of run-scoring singles from Shane Fencl and May in the top of the fourth.

Douglas added a run when Fencl doubled to left in the top of the sixth to bring Troy Torres home.

The Tigers put their two finals runs, which ended up being game-deciders, across in the top of the seventh when Danny King singled through the middle to bring Beau Davis home and Tanner Thomas drew a bases-loaded walk to bring Torres home.

Torres went 3-for-3 with a triple, Davis went 2-for-4, Fencl went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs, May was 2-for-3 with an RBI and Hoelzen and VanWinkle each doubled.

Douglas improved to 3-1 on the year with the win.