Yerington softball clinches playoff berth

The Yerington High softball team clinched the sixth and final playoff berth into the Northern 3A tournament by gaining a split against Dayton.

Dayton needed a sweep of a doubleheader on Wednesday to beat out Yerington for a playoff berth. The Dust Devils won the opener 5-2, but the Lions came back to win the nightcap 1-0.

Yerington finished 4-10 in league play while Dayton finished 3-11. Yerington will play either Manogue, Truckee or Fernley in the first round of the playoffs.

Both teams received outstanding pitching efforts. Dayton's Nicole Greer and Yerington's Pam Sinclair both pitched all 14 innings of the doubleheader. Sinclair didn't walk a batter in all 14 innings while Greer struck out 17 in the two games.

Sinclair pitched a one-hit shutout in game two while Greer allowed just one uneared run in the fifth inning. Sinclair struck out three and Greer struck out six.

Stephanie Sciarani, Hillary Vaughn, Sinclair and Sabra Tibbals all had hits for Yerington while Vienna Cabrita had Dayton's only hit.

In the opener, Yerington led 2-0 after two innings, but Dayton came back to break a 2-2 tie with three runs in the seventh. Greer struck out 11 and Sinclair struck out four.

Jill Stradley went 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI, Natalie Malekos and Shawna Skog each went 2-for-3, Jesse Ayres and Keeli Garcia each had a hit and an RBI and Rachel Hurt had two hits for Dayton. Sciarani, Sinclair and Melissa Jangula had hits for Yerington.