Carson splits DH, now 3-3 in league

By Darrell Moody

dmoody@nevadaappeal.com

Carson High's softball team is back at the .500 mark after splitting a doubleheader against visiting Fallon on Saturday afternoon.

Fallon squeezed out a 4-3 win in the opener thanks to three RBIs by Chelsea Smitten, but Carson scored six unearned runs in the first inning and coasted to a 15-1 victory in the second game, which was halted after five innings because of the 10-run rule.

"This was big," Carson coach Scott Vickrey said. "If we hadn't won this series, we would have been coming from way back the rest of the year.

"Our goal was to get three. There was a little more pressure going into that last game. We were hoping to pick up that last one."

The second game was never in doubt after the Senators scored six in the first.

After retiring Carson's first hitter, Fallon made three consecutive errors. Moriah Lane doubled home a run, Lauren Knorzer singled home a run and Lindsay Ashbaugh hit an RBI single. Emily Collins drove in two runs to complete the outburst.

After Kari Overston drove in a run to make it 6-1, Carson struck for five more runs in the third. Winning pitcher Daria Leid helped herself with two RBIs, while K.C. Withrow and Megan Hein each drove in a run to make it 11-1.

Carson tacked on four more in the fourth to complete the scoring.

Lane and freshman Jocelyn Young led the offense with three hits apiece, while Hein, Withrow, Knorzer, Collins and Ashbaugh added two hits apiece.

Fallon's one-run win in the opener was the fourth straight one-run decision it has been involved in.

"It was another good ballgame," Fallon coach Phil Pinder said after the opener. "It was a heck of a pitcher's duel again. They (Carson) were knocking on the door at the end."

Jill Pinder gave up a first-inning run when Young singled, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Collins, to third on Hein's infield roller and scored on Lane's single.

Fallon built a 4-1 lead, scoring twice in the third and fourth innings.

Smitten drove in both runs in the third with a single. Fallon loaded the bases after Smitten's hit, but Leid escaped further damage by retiring Danielle Rothery and Rachel Itskin.

In the fourth Sara Parsons and Smitten delivered run-scoring singles to make it 4-1.

Natalie Morrow, swinging for Mariah Hartley hit an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth to make it 4-2. The inning could have been bigger, but Itskin threw out Lindsay Ashbaugh at the plate after catching Young's flyball in right.

"I took a shot," Vickrey said. "I was hoping for a bad throw."

Morrow re-entered in the sixth and drove in another run to make it 4-3. Morrow drove in all three Carson runs.

"I've been doing it (coming off the bench) a lot this year," Morrow said. "You have to have the mindset that you could go into the game at any time. I'm used to it."

Carson had a great chance to at least tie the game when it put runners on first and second with no outs in the seventh. Lane forced the runner at third, Leid popped to second and Lauren Knorzer hit into a fielder's choice to end the game.

Vickrey admitted that he was tempted to have Lane, his most consistent hitter thus far, move the runners up with a bunt but decided against it.