Fallon's Kayla Buckmaster slides safe into home after an RBI.
A weekend sweep wasn’t the only good news for the Lady Wave this weekend.
Among three victories against the Spring Creek Spartans — 17-3 on Friday and 9-4 and 18-3 in Saturday’s double header — former state championship catcher/third-base Megan McCormick has hit the 20th home run of her high school career.
“I’m feeling pretty good about it,” Fallon coach Tammie Shemenski said of the series sweep. “I feel pretty confident about these three wins. We came back tough, and we’ve got to come back tough after a tough loss (to Fernley), and I think we’re going to use these games to build towards our next one against Fernley on April 12.
Fallon (9-1 overall and in DI-A) has a bye this week to rest until their second chance against the Fernley Vaqueros on Tuesday, which Shemenski said will give her team plenty of time to rest and prepare.
Inversely, the Lady Spartans (8-8 overall, 6-6 in D1-A) were just coming to Fallon from a three-game series against the Sparks Railroaders prior to last weekend, which Spring Creek coach Chad Helms said exhausted his players.
“We know what we’re up against with Fallon every year,” Helms said. “They’re always the league team to beat if you want to be at the next level.”
McCormick’s long-ball took place in the first game on Friday, a grand-slam which scored Miranda Ford, Kalyn Huckaby and Izzy Thomas for Fallon’s 5-0 lead.
The Spartans didn’t fall too far behind, however, once Spring Creek’s Mikal Jerman scored a two-run homer, driving in Spring Creek’s Rashay Williams on base.
McCormick’s grand-slam wasn’t the only homer of the game for Fallon, though. Miranda Ford hit a long ball of her own, a three-run RBI which also scored Kayla Buckmaster and Faith Cornmesser. By that big play, Fallon had dominated Spring Creek with a 15-3 lead which would only increase by two runs for a 17-3 finish.
The second game of the weekend Saturday morning was when Helms said he felt it was the best version of his team against the best version of Fallon’s team as far as pitching and infielding.
The first and second innings ended scoreless between Fallon pitcher Buckmaster and Spring Creek’s Ashley Bodin who was pitching heat as well.
Fallon’s Caitlyn Welch scored the first run in the bottom of the third, followed by an RBI double by Thomas to left field which drove in Huckaby to end the inning, 2-0.
Spring Creek nearly caught up with three runs by Johanna Marcille, Miranda Powell and Katlyn Wirths to trail 5-3, but the Wave piled on the stolen bases in their at bats to the end of the game.
The Lady Spartans’ Paige Nelms, however, would not go quietly, ripping a homer of her own off Buckmaster for one last run before her team’s last at bat ended with an out at first, cinching the 9-4 victory for the Wave.
“I felt pretty good about that game despite that we had four errors,” Helms said. “I think we could’ve had a better outcome, and it showed.”
The third game bore the widest margin of victory for the Lady Wave all weekend, but not before the Spartans’ matched the Lady Wave at the end of the first inning, 2-2.
Spring Creek’s third and final run, however, came from Jerman sliding safe at home, and by then Fallon still led 8-3 with no signs of slowing down.
Lady Spartans’ freshmen Kailey Webb pitched for Spring Creek in the third game, brought up from the JV team by Helms to help relieve his cast of varsity pitchers after the tiresome prior series against Sparks.
Webb’s issues with control contributed to the Wave frequently loading the bases with runners walking home for runs before Fallon cruised ahead 15-3. Webb was swapped out for Spring Creek’s Alex Richardson in the fourth inning.
Richardson, despite having more control, couldn’t keep the Lady Wave from three last RBIs to end the series sweep.
With a week before facing their rivals, Shemenski said Fallon will be running situations and making sure they work on firsts and thirds since she knows those will come up again in the rematch with Fernley.
“They always do,” Shemenski said, “and we want to come out on top when that happens.”