Vondrak, Ashbaugh lead CHS softball to win

Carson High's softball team took advantage of what Fallon gave it, and made it work for a 5-2 win Thursday afternoon at Carson High.

Carson improved to 11-5 in Sierra League play. The teams will play a doubleheader Saturday starting at 10 a.m.

Hits by Lindsay Ashbaugh and Cassie Vondrak, mixed with two Fallon errors led to three third-inning runs as Carson took a 4-1 lead that Fallon couldn't overcome.

Vondrak made sure that the lead stood up by striking out eight Greenwave batters. She issued only two walks and allowed the Greenwave only five singles.

"Fallon always gives us a tough go," Carson coach Scott Vickrey said. "We knew we had to play clean ball, and we didn't start off real great with an error in the first inning."

A fielding error by third baseman Daria Leid helped Fallon take 1-0 lead in the first, but Carson evened the score in the bottom of the inning.

Ashbaugh reached base on a fielder's choice, forcing Kristin Withrow at second. Vondrak singled Ashbaugh to third, and then Leid hit a bouncer to shortstop that took a wicked hop which Fallon's Jenny Rechel couldn't corral allowing Ashbaugh to score on the play.

In the bottom of the third, Withrow led off with a line-hugging groundball to third, and was safe when Fallon first baseman Brittyn Tidwell dropped Jenna Christy's throw. Krista Mattice followed with another grounder to third, and this time Christy's throw to second sailed into centerfield.

So instead of having nobody on and two out, the Senators had two on and nobody out. Ashbaugh and Vondrak followed with their RBI singles.

A hit batter and two wild pitches by Vondrak helped Fallon cut the lead to 4-2 in the fifth, but Carson answered an inning later when Leid doubled, took third on a wild pitch, then scored the final run on a grounder by Katie McEwan.

"We got some key hits today," Vickrey said. "We're hitting the ball well at the beginning of the lineup. We made stuff happen today and we got it done."