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April 29, 2005
SOUTHERN 3-A PV girls, Crusaders close in on titles
By DON McDERMOTT
In softball, first-place Pahrump Valley, 11-1, will battle the Lady Eagles, 8-2. A sweep will clinch the No. 1 seed for the defending league, regional and state champion Trojans. Tuesday, the Lady Trojans lost for the first time in 23 league games when Las Vegas Faith Lutheran won 5-3 in the opener of a twin bill. In the nightcap, Pahrump Valley won 9-3. In baseball, second-place Boulder City, 9-1, is four games ahead of third-place Pahrump Valley, 5-7. The Eagles will have four games left after that doubleheader, the Trojans two, so for Pahrump Valley to have any shot at second place and the No. 2 seed for the playoffs, a sweep of the Eagles is necessary. Faith Lutheran, which has to play Boulder City again, is moving toward the pennant in its first season in the 3-A league. The Crusaders are in first place at 11-1 after its 10-0, 7-3 sweep of Pahrump Valley Tuesday. Friday, both PV teams travel to Mesquite to wrap up the league season against Virgin Valley. Saturday, the Trojans host Las Vegas The Meadows in non-league contests. The playoffs are May 13-14 at Virgin Valley, in both softball and baseball. In all games, Pahrump Valley is 21-9 in softball, 9-15-1 in baseball. Softball Pahrump Valley had won 44 of 45 league games, dating back to a 3-1 loss to Boulder City in the 2002 season. Righthander Jessie Tracy ended a 22-game league winning streak, striking out eight and allowing only one hit to beat the Trojans. The Crusaders scored two unearned runs on three errors in the sixth inning to take a 5-2 lead. Tracy yielded a run in the bottom of the inning and with the tying run at the plate in the seventh, she pitched out of another jam. Senior righthander Sara Coleman was victimized by eight PV errors in the game and sustained her first loss in 11 league decisions this season. In the second game, Coleman, Veronica Villa and Katie Hamrick combined to pitch the Trojans past the Crusaders, whose runs scored on a three-run homer off Coleman by pitcher Erin Wood in the fourth inning. Villa relieved in that inning; in 3 1/3 innings, the senior righthander struck out eight to get the win. Christina Gamble, a freshman pinch hitter, lashed a bases-loaded double in the sixth inning to expand Pahrump Valley's lead to 9-3. The Trojans kept the Crusaders off-balance by stealing nine bases and Michelle Dannenberger drove in three runs with two doubles as Pahrump Valley built a 6-3 lead. Wood took the loss for the Crusaders, giving up 11 hits and eight earned runs. The Trojans swept Boulder City 12-0 and 3-1 at Bravo Field two weeks ago, and they defeated Virgin Valley 12-5 and 13-0 at home. Baseball Pahrump Valley collected only four hits in 14 innings off Faith Lutheran pitchers as the Trojans' league losing streak reached three. They did not score until the fifth inning of the second game as Ryan Iodence and Mark Marfoglia had them under control at the plate. T.R. Plummer, the first game starter, two relievers, and Justin Mills, who worked the night cap, gave up 23 hits, including eight doubles, in 14 innings. In the first game, Ally Banuelos and Tyrell Smith relieved for PVHS. Mills got the complete-game setback. Boulder City won 4-2 and 3-0 in games on its field two weeks ago. The Trojans swept Virgin Valley 16-0 and 6-3 in home contests. |
