A lack of hitting, a couple of passed balls and two errors enabled Bishop Manogue to squeeze past Carson 2-1 in eight innings Thursday afternoon at Carson.
The loss dropped the Senators to 3-1 in Sierra League softball play and 7-2 overall. Bishop Manogue dropped to 3-1 in league.
It was a tough-luck loss for Carson ace Cassie Vondrak, who fanned five and allowed two unearned runs.
"Cassie pitched a phenomenal game; no earned runs," Carson coach Scott Vickrey said. "We hit real well through the first eight games and two scrimmages. We have to be able to put the ball down when we need to."
Manogue's Megan Dortch, who set a school record with 19 strikeouts in a game last week, fanned 15 Carson hitters out of a possible 24 outs.
Vickrey said he believes Dortch is beatable if his team hits the way it can, and no doubt today's practice will focus on hitting and bunting.
An error, a stolen base and two passed balls enabled Manogue to take a 1-0 lead.
Carson tied the game at 1 in the seventh when Natalie Morrow doubled and scored on a hit by Hannah Shaw, one of three Carson hits on the day.
The Miners broke the tie in the top of the eighth when Clancy Fogarty singled, advanced to second on an infield out, to third on a fly ball and scored on an error.
Shaw, Morrow and Vondrak had Carson's hits.
The teams conclude the three-game series Saturday at Manogue with a doubleheader starting at 10 a.m.
Junior Varsity
Softball: Carson 15, Manogue 1
The Carson junior varsity team defeated Manogue at home, moving its record to 3-0 in league and 7-2 overall.
Christina Gallegos pitched the complete game, fanning seven batters.
Offensively, three Senators posted three-RBI days: Morgan Kleine, Ashley Saarem and Christa McGahuey.
Carson scored six runs in the first inning, all coming with two outs, and never looked back.
Baseball: Manogue 17,
Carson 6
The Carson JV baseball fell at home to Manogue 17-6 for their first league loss. Their record is now 3-1 in league and 4-4 overall.
Brock Pradere, Shea Bondi and Tim Baylor all went 2-for-4 from the plate and Danny Gall was 3-for-4 with three RBIs.
Golf
In its first league tournament, the Carson golf team came in second place with 415 points at Wolf Run Golf Club in Reno. Bishop Manogue won the tournament with a 398.
Jonathan Singer placed third with a 76 while Garrett Gingell (82), Jayson Davis (84), Ryan Livermore (85), Steven Valdez (88) and C.J. Davis (100) rounded out Carson's top six golfers.
Baseball
Galena 7, Douglas 6
With two of the top teams in the Sierra League matched up for an early-season duel, it was a given that it would be a close game.
In the end, all that separated the two teams was a bases-loaded balk.
Galena's Charlie Price scored the game-winning run when Tiger reliever Tyler May was called for a balk with no outs and the bases full in the top of the seventh. May recovered to get out of the inning with three outs in only two batters, but Galena held on for a 7-6 win in Minden.
Softball
Douglas 9, Galena 4
The Douglas High softball team scored all nine of its runs in the fourth inning to take a 9-4 win over Galena in Minden.
Stephanie Harper went the distance for the Tigers in the circle, striking out six and walking seven as Douglas improved to 3-1 in Sierra League play and 5-5 overall.
Galena built a three-run lead in the top of the third before Douglas answered in the bottom of the fourth.
The game was a collection of timely hitting and untimely mistakes for both sides as five of the 13 runs scored came as a direct result of errors, of which the two teams combined to commit nine.
"That's just high school baseball," Douglas coach John Glover said. "You have to give Galena credit. They hit the ball, put it in play and made things happen. They're just a good baseball team."
The sentiment was echoed on the other side.
"This was a great high school baseball game," Galena coach Ron McNutt said. "We came over here knowing Douglas has an outstanding baseball club, very well coached. Today the breaks went our way and I'm very happy about that. We knew we'd have to play the whole seven innings, and it came right down to that today."
That the winning run was even on base came as the result of an error as Galena's Luke Hooper opened the inning by reaching on a misplayed grounder at first. Brian Walker drew a walk to put runners on first and second, causing Douglas to bring May into the game.