There wasn't much suspense about John Sullivan's last home game ever at the Carson High softball field.
Mandy Carvin pitched a five-inning shutout and Kaitie Vidovich went 2-for-3 to lead the Senators in their 11-0 Sierra League win over winless South Tahoe on Wednesday.
Sullivan, who said he will retire after more than a decade with the Carson softball program, now leads the Senators into a crucial doubleheader on Friday against Reno High. The Huskies are currently in fourth place in the Sierra League with an 8-8 record. Carson is 10-6 and needs just a split to earn the third seed from the league at the zone playoffs.
"We've qualified for zone 10 years in a row, so that's always our first goal," Sullivan said. "Obviously I'd like to finish in third because we wouldn't have to play McQueen in the first round. But we'll see. We just got to come out and worry about Friday because Reno can still finish in third."
Reno can finish in third if it sweeps both games. However, the Senators have already beaten the Huskies earlier this season by a score of 3-0. The Vikings, who fell to 0-13 after Wednesday's loss, might not have been the strong competition Sullivan was hoping for going into Friday's games. But he feels any game was going to be beneficial.
"It was nice just to have an opportunity to play," Sullivan said. "Mandy Carvin got to throw some and she had a good game. And we hit the ball pretty good. It was important to keep our focus."
Carson went up 2-0 in the first after Lindsey Perondi's grounder scored Vidovich and Heather Diamond's RBI single scored Lindsay Farnworth. The Senators broke the game open in the second. Liz Rank hit an RBI triple and Rankl and Natalie Mandoki both scored on an error to make it 5-0. Perondi's sac fly to right field, which scored Ariadne Gonzalez, put Carson up 6-0.
The Senators were held scoreless over the next two innings but scored five runs in the fifth to win by virtue of the 10-run rule. They recorded 12 hits in the game. Ambir Rackley's two-run single in the fifth proved to be the game-winner as it gave Carson a 10-0 lead. Carvin had a no-hitter through four innings but Libby Bigelow's lead off single in the fifth canceled her no-no bid. She still struck out eight batters and walked only two.
Gonzalez and and Perondi both went 2-for-4. Rackley and Perondi each finished with two RBI. Carson's doubleheader at Reno starts at 2 p.m.
