Senators cruis past S. Tahoe

With the Northern 4A Regional Softball Tournament set for its own home field, the Carson High softball team knows exactly where it wants to be on the weekend of May 11-13. The Senators also know exactly where they don't want to be.

"We host zone and we're looking forward to it," Carson coach Scott Vickrey said. "And I know I don't want to be flipping burgers. That's what happened last year. We missed qualifying and the girls saw what it's like to be flipping burgers at the tournament, so the fire's kind of lit now."

Christa Casci hit 3-for-3 and pitched the final two innings in relief of Mandy Carvin as the Senators helped their playoff cause with a 12-1 Sierra League victory on Thursday afternoon.

Carson (5-3 league, 11-7-1 overall) scored three runs in the first inning, then added four runs in the fourth and five more runs in the fifth to put the game away.

"This was a must win for us today, especially with Wooster coming up on Saturday," Vickrey said, referring to a key doubleheader at Wooster.

The Senators collected nine hits in what Vickrey described as a good performance both offensively and defensively.

"We made good contact today. We're starting to hear the ping of the bats more, which is good," he said. " We've also been working on trying to play error-free ball, and we pretty much did that today."

The Senators had one error on a fifth-inning fly ball that was partially lost in the sun. Otherwise, Carvin allowed three hits over three innings and Casci allowed one run on four hits in the final two innings.

Casci had three hits to lead Carson offensively, while Candice Rutledge went 2-for-3 with a double, Kaitlin Burroughs went 2-for-2 with a triple, Robyn Conn was 1-for-3 with three runs scored from the leadoff spot and Jessica Ashbaugh was 1-for-2 with an RBI double in the first inning.

Carson scored three times in the first and South Tahoe avoided further trouble thanks to a double play from Molly Novasel, who took a throw at first base for one out, then threw to pitcher Kelly Bartlett covering home plate for another out.

South Tahoe scored its lone run in the fourth when Novasel doubled and scored on a Shay McLaughlin base hit. McLaughlin hit 2-for-2, while Cassie Smith, Danielle Lowe, Charlotte Lee and Novasel all contributed one hit each for the Vikings.

n Contact Dave Price at dprice@nevadaappeal.com or call 881-1220.