DON McDERMOTT / PVT Rich Lauver, the Pahrump Valley coach, had his fast-pitch softball team finish 23-23 this season, after a 0-9 start playing some of the best clubs in the southwestern United States. Advertisement

For a team that started the season off with only two returning starters, the Pahrump Valley Trojans' fast-pitch softball team had a pretty good year.

The Lady Trojans were 23-23 in all games, after a 0-9 start, and earned Southern Nevada Class 3-A league and regional titles. Pahrump Valley was 13-3 in the league and 3-0 in the regionals, before winning one of three games in the state tournament played last weekend at Faith Lutheran High School in Las Vegas.

Rich Lauver, the Trojans' head coach, said the team's shaky start was expected. In fact, it was planned for.

"Survive March, get good in April and be great in May," the coach told his players throughout the season.

And to Lauver, the girls did just that. Their play in April and May was enough to reach the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association Fast-Pitch Softball Championships.

The only problem was the team "peaked a weekend too early," Lauver said. At state, the girls lost 10-2 to eventual champion Fernley in the first round of the double-elimintation tournament, then beat Boulder City 7-6 in nine innings. With a berth in the state finals at stake, Pahrump Valley lost 5-2 to defending state champion Winnemucca But despite the early trip home from the tournament, the girls' season was at least successful, and at most, a great warm-up for a potential championship-winning 2008 team.

With only three seniors -- Angelica Villa, Abi Gill and Michelle Dannenberger -- on the team this season, most of the Trojans are expected to return for the 2008 campaign.

Among them will be eight all-conference players and five all-state players.

Gill, Christina and Rebecca Gamble, Taylor Raymer, Dannenberger, Tori Thomas and Ashleah Barney made all-league, with Christina Rodriguez and Chelsea Cochrell as honorable mentions.

Dannenberger, Barney, Thomas, Raymer, Gill and both Gambles made the All-State team, the most Pahrump Valley has ever had on the list, their coach says.

"I'd say that next year will be our oldest team, it'll be the team with the most at-bats," Lauver says. "Eight of the nine juniors have played all three years."

Couple that with a number of highly-productive underclassmen -- freshman infielder Raymer, for instance, had a .609 batting average in the post-season -- and next year's team could get the Trojans back into the final round of the state tournament, from which they've been absent since 2005. Pahrump Valley won state 3-A titles in 2003, 2004, and 2005.

"Every year we try to add something," said Lauver. "What it comes down to is you have to adjust to the players and next year we won't have to adjust so much because we have so many returning." Hopefully returning with next year's players will be the passion that made this season what it was, said Lauver.

"It's difficult for a young kid to buy in when you're getting throttled day after day, but they did and that's why we won league and regional titles," said the veteran coach. "In the beginning of the year, we had no chance to win the state championship, but at the end, if we'd have played well on the right weekend, we had a shot."