Brad Horn/Nevada Appeal
At 4-18, it's hard to hide how bad things have been for the Western Nevada softball team. The latest example came Friday when the Wildcats were a part of one of the ugliest no-hitters in recent memory.
They fell 14-0 in five innings to Salt Lake in the second game of their doubleheader at Centennial Park despite having five batters reach on walks, another who was hit by a pitch and just five strikeouts to their credit. But free passes are usually no good without balls being hit where someone isn't.
WNC fell 13-3 in the first game.
"We do hit a lot, we're just not getting the timely hits that we need," WNC coach Scott Rasner said. "That first inning we just started out wrong. It might have been a whole different world had we gotten out of that inning ... Those hits are going to fall, it's only a matter of time."
Rasner and the rest of the team have remained positive about the losing streak, now at 14 games, but things have rarely looked as if they would turnaround. The good news for the Wildcats is after two more games with the conference-leading Bruins today beginning at noon, they face lowely Colorado Northwestern, a team they crushed in their only wins of the season, next week.
Salt Lake (23-3 SWAC, 26-5) put the bulk of its runs up early as Ambar Huish struggled to get outs in the first inning. Stacie Graham hit a lead-off single to right-center followed by Sarah Clark, who got on with an infield single. Pitcher Jordyn McDonald reached on an error when Alexandria Arciniega couldn't get a hold of a grounder at shortstop.
Lisa Riches, the fourth batter of the inning, stayed patient as she worked her way to a full count before finding the perfect pitch, the eighth in the at-bat. Nearly everyone at the park knew the ball was gone from the moment of contact as it easily cleared the wall 200 feet away.
The next batter, Erica Park, made it back-to-back home runs and put the Bruins up 5-0. They scored two more runs in the inning and forced WNC to pull Huish out after one inning.
The Wildcats had four batters in scoring position, but couldn't capitalize as McDonald was able to get the WNC batters to fly out five times.
"Two weeks off really helped," Rasner said of the Wildcats, who haven't played a game since March 7. "The score didn't reflect it, but still, they played good today."