Softball: Oasis' Detomasi records 500th strikeout

After striking out 22 Longhorns in the first two games of the series, Kirsten Detomasi was on the brink of history.

The Oasis Academy senior hurler needed one more strikeout to become the first to fan 500 in a high school softball career in the Lahontan Valley.

After a leadoff single followed by a walk and steal to put runners on second and third in the series finale on Saturday at the East Richards field, Detomasi buckled down against Thalia Gonzalez. The Battle Mountain hitter fouled back-to-back pitches before watching a ball go by to even the count at 2-2. Then, Detomasi unleashed a high fastball, Gonzalez couldn’t connect and Detomasi achieved one of the sport’s coveted pitching milestones.

Detomasi finished with five strikeouts in the game and now has 504 in her career, which spans across the 1A and 2A classes. Her career total is the highest total among Churchill County softball pitchers. Fallon’s Jill Pinder struck out 463 from 2009-2012 when the Wave won a pair of 3A state titles.

Oasis Academy swept Saturday’s doubleheader, 14-4 and 10-3, after dropping Friday’s opener, 9-0.

Oasis Academy improved to 5-1 in the 2A North and sits in third behind Yerington (6-0) and Pershing County (8-1). The Bighorns host Silver Stage on Friday before traveling to Silver Springs to resume the series with a doubleheader on Saturday. They host Yerington on Tuesday.

The Bighorns came back from a small deficit in Saturday’s 14-4 win when it piled on nine runs in the fourth inning to end the game by the mercy rule.

Shayana McNamer led the team with three hits, including a double, and five RBIs, and Lorena Rios had two hits, including a double, and an RBI. Detomasi singled and drove in two, and Grace Laca drove in one.

Detomasi struck out 11 in five innings, while issuing only one walk and allowing eight hits.

Oasis Academy trailed 2-1 in the second inning after Detomasi gave up a homer on the second pitch of the game and a two-out single.

After McNamer scored on a passed ball to tie the game in the first, Oasis Academy came back the next inning with four more runs. Detomasi’s groundout scored Caidance McCart, who led off with a walk. Phynex Hunt, who singled, scored on a passed ball to break the tie, 3-2, before McNamer’s single drove in Emma Lewis, who walked. After walking, Maynez also scored on a passed ball to give Oasis Academy a three-run lead.

In the fourth inning, Lewis scored on the throw when McNamer singled into left field, and then she scored on Rios’ line-drive single. Laca tripled to right field to score Rios and then she scored on an infield error when Kaylin Guthrie’s bunt created chaos in the infield. With two outs, Detomasi singled in Guthrie and then Brooke Manskie, who walked, scored on a passed ball to give Oasis Academy an 11-2 lead.

McNamer’s double to center gave her team a 12-run lead going into the fifth inning.

After yielding a two-out triple in the fifth, Detomasi fanned Paitynn Johns for her 499th career strikeout.

A seven-run fifth inning was the difference in Saturday’s second game.

Three players — Maynez, McNamer and Rios — drove in two runs each with McNamer coming a home run shy of the cycle. Lewis, Hunt and Detomasi each drove in a run.

Down 1-0 in the third inning, Hunt scored on Maynez’s groundout to tie the game with one out before Rios’ lineout allowed Detomasi to tag and score two batters later. Detomasi’s two-out single in the fourth scored Hunt from second in the fourth inning to increase the lead to two runs.

In the fifth, McNamer scored on Rios’ single to center before she was tagged at home for the second out. But the Bighorns responded with six runs before ending the inning, beginning with Laca scoring on a throwing error. Lewis’ groundout scored Manskie followed by Hunt scoring on Maynez’s infield single. McNamer’s double to right scored Maynez and Detomasi.

In Friday’s 9-0 loss, Maynez, McNamer and Laca each had two hits.

Detomasi fanned 11 after giving up three earned runs, six hits and six walks.