Fallon's Maddison Keller.
Provided to the LVN
After blowing out North Valleys in the opener, the Greenwave softball team couldn’t come back to sweep the Panthers on Saturday in Reno.
In a battle of the last two state champions, Fallon won the opener, 16-1, but fell 12-9 in the nightcap.
Fallon, which won last year’s state title, begins 3A East play against the state runner-up, Fernley, on Friday. The Wave hosts the Vaqueros at 4 p.m. on Friday, followed by a doubleheader beginning at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
Fallon wasted no time in the first game, ending it after three innings due to the mercy rule. Fallon scored seven runs in each of the first two innings.
Vernita Fillmore led the team with three hits, including a double, and three RBIs, and Sutton Yost, Kalaya Downs and Taralynn Vershum each had two hits. Vershum, Audrey Fruzza and Dana Buckmaster each drove in two runs.
Janessa Bettencourt pitched all three innings, striking out seven.
In the second game, North Valleys jumped out to a 5-2 lead before Fallon tied the game in the fourth only for the Panthers to respond with three more runs.
After Peyton Prinz singled and advanced to second on an error to open the fourth, Bostynn Wright’s bunt was misplayed, which led to Prinz scoring. Fillmore singled to center to score Wright before Layla Walker’s infield single tied the game when Fillmore crossed the plate with one out. With runners on second and third, Fallon couldn’t score again after back-to-back strikeouts.
North Valleys broke the tie in the bottom half of the inning with a pair of singles.
Yost scored in the following inning to bring the score to 8-6 before Fillmore’s single scored Kalaya Downs. With two runners on again, Fallon grounded out and then struck out to end the threat.
Fallon got within one after two more runs scored in the fifth, but North Valleys added four in the bottom of the inning.
A two-out, three-run homer in the fifth inning gave North Valleys a 12-7 lead in the fifth inning before Maddison Keller responded with a two-run homer in the sixth.
Buckmaster led the team at the plate with three singles while Fillmore singled twice and drove in two. Bettencourt and Yost each singled twice, and Vershum had two doubles.
Fillmore took the loss in the circle, giving up nine earned runs on 10 hits while striking out four and walking two.