Lady Wave plays at Sparks before final seeding

DAYTON — The Lady Wave is now one series away from the playoff-seeding after its double shutout series sweep in Dayton.

The sweep began with Friday’s 18-0 victory, followed by a doubleheader win 19-3 and a 13-0 no-hitter on Saturday.

After leaving Dayton (2-20-1 overall, 2-17 in DI-A) as the last place team in the league, Fallon (18-2 overall and in DI-A) will head to Sparks in hopes of cementing its first-place position on Friday at 3 p.m. for the first game of the weekend series followed by a doubleheader Saturday at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

The Lady Wave not only shutout but also 10-runned the Dust Devils in the first game. Saturday’s five-hit three-run outing for the Dust Devils was no far cry, though it was the only game in which Dayton could prevent a shutout.

“Everybody comes out and it always seems, when you face your opponent, that they can actually get you, get us,” Fallon head coach Tammie Shemenski said when asked if she felt Dayton brought anything different to the table for the Lady Wave despite the large losses. “But the end results always says otherwise. I’ll admit a number of hits they got threw me off a little bit but it’s something as a coach that’s easy to fix so we’re just going to move on.”

In light of the Railroaders’ little difference from Dayton in record (6-18-1 overall, 5-15 in DI-A) Fallon may be one series from claiming the No. 1 seed in the Division I-A playoffs. Fernley, Lowry and South Tahoe currently hold the second, third and fourth place rosters, no coincidence in the fact each of these teams has achieved at least one victory against the Lady Wave this season.

With one series left, Shemenski said she feels like she has accomplished what she has wanted to with her players just in time for the seeding and gotten her team where she has wanted them to be all season.

“Our bats have come on strong as you can tell from the averages and from the home runs we’ve had and I think that we are ready,” Shemenski said. “We’ve got a strong infield and we’ve got a strong outfield and our bats are there. So we’re going to take a win.”

Fernley head coach Diane Chapin said with confidence it would be her Lady Vaqueros squaring off against Fallon again at the end just as it was in the past in a previous interview. In light of this, Shemenski said she’s always believe it would be Fernley and Fallon at the end as well.

“It’s just the way it has always been for the last four or five years,” Shemenski said in light of the Lady Wave’s previous state titles, “so I definitely expect to see them.”