Carson High Senior Kassidy Cooley makes the last out of the top of the 8th inning during the game between Carson High and Spanish Springs High at Carson High School in Carson City, Nevada.
Reality no longer exists at Carson High’s softball field. Just rename the place Fantasyland and be done with it. Only the utterly improbable, the totally unbelievable will ever be possible there again.
How else to explain Carson’s comeback against Spanish Springs on Thursday in which the Senators overcame 5-0 and 7-3 deficits for an 8-7 win in eight innings. CHS was down to its final strike twice before pulling off the comeback.
Caydee Farnworth finished off the comeback when she sent a bloop single down the right field line to score Jailene Salciedo with the winning run in the bottom of the eighth.
It was also a game in which the goat became the hero as Kailee Luschar made up for an error that led to three Cougar runs by driving in three runs herself which spurred on the Senators’ comeback in the seventh.
“I think our girls show a lot of character and heart,” Carson coach Carlos Mendeguia said. “We have real good hitters one through nine. Our girls are confident. We’ve got good team speed. We’ve got good team power. We got the hits when we needed them. The bottom line is we got the job done.”
Carson remains in the middle of a five-team race for the Northern 4A regular season title after beating the defendings state champions in the Cougars.
Douglas (10-2), Manogue (9-2), Carson (8-3), Spanish Springs (8-3) and McQueen (8-3) are all within one game of each other in the loss column.
Amaya Mendeguia, Farnworth, who came in as a pinch hitter, and Camryn Quilling all singled to load the bases in the seventh. But Carson was down to its last strike when Luschar fell behind in the count 0-2.
Luschar fought back to run the count to 3-2 and then drove a bases clearing triple to the right-center filed fence pulling CHS to within 7-6. CHS was down to its last strike again, but Bella Kordonowy came through with an RBI double on a 2-2 pitch to tie the game 7-7.
For Luschar it was a cathartic moment. Luschar dropped a pop fly at second base that would have ended the inning in the fourth with the Senators trailing 1-0. The next batter followed with a three-run double to give the Cougars a 4-0 lead.
“I felt it coming,” said Luschar about her chance to make up for her error. “It felt really good. I was really mad. All of it just added up. It was coming.”
“She’s a great player and great players come through,” coach Mendeguia said. “And great players make up for mistakes.”
Salciedo led off the eight by sending a shot right through the legs of the Cougars’ second baseman into right centerfield and ended up on second on the two-base error. Mendeguia followed with a groundball to the right side to put Salciedo on third with one out.
Kassidy Cooley followed by hitting a line drive right on the nose to right, but the ball was caught and was hit too hard for Salciedo to tag up and score.
But Farnworth followed with her game-winning hit which set off a celebration in which she received an absolute pounding from her teammates. And of course Farnworth’s hit came on an 0-2 count.
“Caydee came in and did a great job off the bench,” said coach Mendeguia about Farnworth, who went 2-for-2. “She did an outstanding job.”
Carson began its comeback in the fifth when Quilling singled, Kailee Luschar reached on a bunt single and Kedra Luschar followed with a three-run home run to pull CHS to within 5-3.
Through it all, Salciedo pitched a complete game for the win, allowing four earned runs over eight innings. “She’s a fighter,” Mendeguia said. “She’s not afraid of anybody. She gets strong as the game goes along. When the game goes into extra innings we don’t worry with her on the mound.”
Kailee Luschar and Quilling each had three hits for Carson.
BASEBALL
CHS drops two
It was a tough week for the Carson High baseball team as it lost 9-0 to Damonte Ranch on Tuesday at Ron McNutt Field and 12-0 on Thursday at Reno High.
Matthew Sigafoos shut down Carson, pitching Damonte Ranch to the win. Sigafoos allowed five hits while striking out seven and walking one in six innings. Tyler Hopper threw one inning in relief for Damonte.
Jade Stotts, Casey Martensen, Justin Nussbaumer, Bryce Baker, Kenny Aydelott, and Kahle Good all had one hit for Carson.
John Barry shut down Carson for Reno, allowing thre hits over five innings while striking out five and walking one. Kobe Morgan, Nussbaumer and Kenny Aydelott each had a hit for Carson.
GOLF
CHS tied for third
The Carson High golf team is now tied for third in the overall Sierra League standings after Wednesday’s league tournament at Toiyabe.
Carson finished fourth in the tournament with a 364, finishing behind Douglas (358), Manogue (313) and Galena (289). In the overall Sierra League standings, Galena is first, Manogue is second and Carson and Douglas are tied for third.
Zander Smokey led Carson with an 85 on Wednesday and Nick Brown also had a solid round for CHS, shooting an 89. Also for the Senators, Daniel Escalante fired a 94, Brandon Engels shot a 96 and Cole Warkentin added a 98. Carson played without one of its best golfers, Lukas Taggart.
