Fallon’s Janessa Bettencourt helped her team even the series against Fernley when she homered in Saturday’s doubleheader opener.
Photo by Thomas Ranson.
After dropping the first game in a rematch of last year’s state championship, the Wave softball team swept Saturday’s doubleheader over Fernley to win the 3A East series at the Edward Arciniega Athletic Complex.
Fallon fell to Fernley, 15-10, on Friday but came back the next day to win 13-3 and 10-7. Fallon is at the Reed tournament this weekend and will host Dayton next weekend.
The Wave was in control of the series opener before the Vaqueros scored eight in the final inning to stun the home team.
Down 10-7 in the seventh, Fernley’s first six batters reached base. A single and back-to-back walks issued by Janessa Bettencourt loaded the bases before Fernley scored on an infield single. Vernita Fillmore relieved Bettencourt but she walked in a run and a pop-fly was misplayed to tie the game at 10. A walk broke the tie followed by a two-out single that scored one and another Vaquero crossed the plate on an outfielder error. Another error led to two more runs, giving Fernley a five-run lead.
The game started in Fallon’s favor when Layla Walker and Maddison Keller each doubled in runs and Bettencourt smacked a two-run homer over the left-field fence to give Fallon a 5-0 lead in the first inning. Dana Buckmaster’s RBI single in the second added another run. Fallon scored again on Kalaya Downs’ line drive and steal in the third before Bettencourt singled in a pair to give Fallon a 10-7 lead in the sixth.
Bettencourt struck out seven and allowed seven hits and four walks in six innings.
After Fernley jumped to a 3-1 lead in Saturday’s doubleheader opener in the third inning, Fallon scored the next 12 runs to end the game in the sixth.
Bettencourt shook off a three-run second inning to finish the game strong, striking out seven and issuing only one walk and allowing five hits.
Fillmore led the team at the plate with three hits and an RBI, and Keller, Bettencourt, Sutton Yost and Bostynn Wright each had two hits. Bettencourt led the team in RBIs with four.
Yost and Fillmore each singled in a run in the second inning to tie the game before Fallon scored five in the next inning. Bettencourt smacked a three-run homer over the centerfield fence to break the tie, and Downs followed three pitches later with a home run. Yost singled on a 1-2 count and then scored on an error after Wright singled to right.
Bettencourt singled in a run in the fourth, and Fillmore scored on an error in the next inning. Keller doubled in Buckmaster two batters later. Buckmaster ended the game in the sixth with a double to left that scored Fillmore.
The series finale almost finished like the opener when Fallon had a five-run advantage in the final inning.
Down 5-2 in the fifth, Buckmaster hit a two-run homer and Keller doubled in Taralynn Vershum to tie the game with no outs. Downs hit her second home run of the day when the ball landed over the left-field fence to give Fallon a 7-5 lead. One inning later, Keller hit a three-run homer, scoring Buckmaster and Vershum, who both singled.
Then the seventh inning came.
Fernley singled and walked to lead off the final inning and scored on a steal to cut the deficit to four runs. After a fielder’s choice led to the second out, Fernley scored again on an infield error. Fillmore, though, got the next batter to fly out and end the game.
Fillmore struck out four but gave up 10 hits and six walks in the complete-game effort.