SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Mallary Darby struck out nine and Kortnee Wiley hit a three-run triple as the Nevada softball team beat Sacramento State in the second game of a doubleheader on Wednesday at Shea Stadium.
The game-two win gave Nevada a split on the day as the Wolf Pack fell 4-3 in game one despite leading 2-0 in the sixth. The Wolf Pack gave up three unearned runs after committing four errors in the final two innings of the loss.
Nevada is now 7-11 on the year and will return home to host Weber State this weekend. The teams will play a doubleheader at noon on Saturday with a single game at noon on Sunday. Prior to Sunday's game, the 2009 team will be presented with their WAC championship rings.
Sacramento State is now 4-13 on the year.
In game two Darby and Shelby Voelz traded zeroes on the scoreboard through the first four innings, with Voelz taking a no-hitter into the fifth. But Voelz hit Lauren Lastrapes with one out in the fifth and Jessica Haight broke up the no-hitter with an infield single, advancing Lastrapes to second. Megan Fincher then drew a full-count walk to load the bases.
Kortnee Wiley broke up the shutout with her first career extra-base hit, a bases-clearing triple to right, giving Nevada a 3-0 lead.
Nevada added an insurance run in the sixth as Britton Murdock tripled and score on Lastrapes's RBI single up the middle to make it 4-0.
In the seventh, Wiley singled with one out and then Noelle Micka singled to extend her team-best hitting streak to 10 games. Danielle Patrick then followed with an RBI single to make it a 5-0 lead.
Darby cruised, scattering five hits and losing the shutout with two outs in the seventh inning. She fanned a season-high nine and walked just one to even her record at 5-5.
In game one, Micka led off the game with a single to extend her hitting streak to nine games. Two batters later, Sam Bias doubled down the left field line to plate Micka and give Nevada a 1-0 lead.
In the second inning, freshman Megan Fincher added to the lead with her first career home run - a two-out shot to center.
Katie Holverson was cruising through the first five innings, allowing just two singles and just one base runner advancing past first base. But Holverson w,alked the leadoff batter in the sixth and the Hornets would go on to take a 3-2 lead without a base hit. Two more walks loaded the bases with one out. A ground ball to second base then spelled disasted as Chelsea Barilli's toss to first went over the head of Kelsey Starr, allowing two runs to score. Then with runners on second and third, a pickoff attempt by catcher Noelle Micka went down the left-field line, allowing another runner to score, giving Sac State a 3-2 lead.
With two outs in the seventh, Nevada was down to its final two strikes before Danielle Patrick tied things home with her fourth home run of the season, a solo shot to left-center.
But the Hornets answered in the bottom of the seventh to win the game. Errors by Sam Bias and Kortnee Wiley put runners on first and third with nobody out and Kelly Frye drove in the game-winning run with a single through the left side, just the third hit off of Holverson.
Holverson gave up three hits and four runs, with only one of them earned. She walked three and struck out five in taking the loss.
