Cougars’ pitching shuts down Senators

There’s a reason why Spanish Springs has been a perennial powerhouse in Northern Nevada softball — pitching.

The Cougars’ two aces — Ally Batastini and Hayley Fein — faced Carson’s young lineup and dominated. In the opener, the Cougars won 11-0 in six innings as Batastini tossed a 5-hitter, and Fein one-upped her teammate in the second game, tossing a no-hitter in a 14-0 win.

Carson fell to 3-15 with four games left in the regular season — Tuesday at Wooster, Thursday at home against Wooster and a Saturday doubleheader at Douglas.

Despite the double setback, CHS coach Shane Quilling thought his youngsters gave a good account of themselves, especially in the first game.

“Even though we lost 11-0 I thought we performed well,” Quilling said. “If it hadn’t been for a couple of errors, we would have played a full seven innings, and that would have been a big deal. I thought Lauren (Lemburg) threw well. They are a darn good team which is why they are tied for first.

“We loaded the bases a couple of times and had a chance to score some runs, and we only struck out a couple of times. We just couldn’t come up with the big hit.”

Bailey Allen led Carson, going 3-for-3. Lemburg and Camiell Simpson added a hit apiece.

Spanish Springs scored two in the first and four in the third, and that was more than enough.

The second game was competitive for three innings, as the Senators held the Cougars to a run in the second and one in the third for a 2-0 deficit. In both instances, Makenzie Tucker was able to extricate herself out of bases-loaded situations.

She wasn’t so lucky in the fourth, as a bunt single by Katelyn Townsend and a fielder’s choice by Regan Hubbard put runners on first and second with one out.

Bailey Ivory launched a three-run homer to right-centerfield to make it 5-0.

Tucker retired the next two hitters to end the inning.

The Cougars put up nine in the fifth thanks to a three-run homer by Autumn Alexander and a two-run blast by Hubbard. Ashley Boylan doubled in two runs.

Carson’s offense put up a fight in the first game, but not in the second. Of Carson’s last nine outs, seven were by strikeout. Fein allowed just three baserunners the entire game. Allen reached on an error in the first, Lemburg was hit by a pitch in the second and Tucker walked in the second.

Carson didn’t have a baserunner in the last 3.1 innings.

On Thursday, Carson lost 14-1 to McQueen, which scored eight runs after two outs.

Carson managed just three hits against the Lancers, one each by Gabi Winder, Penelope Eisenhour and Lemburg.