The mood was light for the WNC Wildcats final home game Saturday at the Pete Livermore Sports Complex.
Briauna Carter certainly won’t forget her sophomore day at Western Nevada College. What the third baseman did against Snow College on Saturday afternoon brought her to tears, as well as many of her teammates.
The Wildcat slugger slammed a game-winning two-run homer with two outs in the eighth inning as WNC rallied for an 8-7 Scenic West Athletic Conference softball victory at Edmonds Sports Complex in Carson City.
“(Kimbri Herring) was getting me all day on that outside pitch, so I just crowded the plate and went for it,” said Carter, minutes after being mobbed by her teammates at home plate.
Snow pitcher Carley Guymon three-hit the Wildcats in the second game as the Badgers ended WNC’s seven-game winning streak with a 3-2 victory. WNC, however, won the series 3-1.
In WNC’s extra-inning victory, Snow took a 7-5 lead in the top of the eighth inning. Undeterred, the Wildcats came back in the last of the eighth. Makaylee Jaussi reached on an error and went to second on a walk to Bailey Henderson. Following Melanie Mecham’s popup of a sacrifice bunt attempt, Kacie Freudenberger spanked a single to center, scoring Jaussi to trim Snow’s lead to 7-6. Henderson tried to advance to third base on the hit but was thrown out by Emily Street.
The second out of the rally didn’t deflate the Wildcats. Carter took a couple of pitches from Herring, then lined the offering off the top, then over the right-field fence for the walk-off homer.
“I was excited; I thought it was all the way, completely out,” said WNC outfielder Triniece Lesky about Carter’s homer the wind knocked down and nearly brought back into the field of play. “It means a lot, especially on sophomore day. We fought hard and did really good as a team, so this was great.”
The Wildcats jumped on Herring in the first inning, scoring twice. Henderson hit her third homer in two days, clearing the left-field fence with a solo blast. Mecham kept the rally going with a bad-hop triple to left. Mecham scampered home on a passed ball to make the score 2-0.
Noa Talia increased WNC’s lead to 3-0 with a third-inning sacrifice fly with the bases loaded.
Kristina George retired the first eight Badgers she faced, prior to giving up a third-inning double to Petersen. Kaitlyn Jimmy starred in relief for the Wildcats, limiting Snow’s sixth-inning rally to two runs and by setting down all six Badgers she faced in the sixth and seventh innings.
In the second game, Guymon went the distance, striking out four and walking three. Henderson, Freudenberger and Kelsie Callahan provided the only hits off Guymon. Jaussi scored both of WNC’s runs.
George relieved Jimmy in the second inning and blanked the Badgers over the final six innings. She allowed two hits and struck out three.
WNC (16-20 in SWAC play and 21-26 overall) will conclude the regular season with four games at rival College of Southern Nevada on Friday and Saturday.
BASEBALL SPLITS
With their doubleheader split against Utah State University Eastern on Saturday, the Western Nevada College Wildcats still have a chance to win the Scenic West Athletic Conference regular-season baseball title and the honor of hosting the region tournament.
After Trevor Sanders blanked the Wildcats, 4-0, on three hits in the opener, WNC got back on track with a 9-6 victory featuring home runs by David Modler and D.J. Peters and a pair of doubles from Tim Lichty.
“We didn’t look ready to play,” said WNC coach D.J. Whittemore. “We didn’t have very many good at-bats and we gave up five hits in one inning. We couldn’t finish their hitters and they did a good job of not striking out.”
The Wildcats (26-10) moved within a win of College of Southern Nevada (27-6) in the victory column and trail the Coyotes by 2 1/2 games going into their four-game series later this week at John L. Harvey Field. CSN’s twin bill against College of Southern Idaho was washed out Saturday and likely won’t be rescheduled.
Peters’ two-run blast in the sixth inning extended WNC’s lead to 8-4. It also gave the sophomore center fielder a share of the Wildcats’ career home run record with 21. Brian Barnett belted 21 homers for the Wildcats during the 2008 and 2009 seasons.
Right-hander Jordy Van den Heuvel pitched three scoreless innings for the Wildcats in Game 2, making his first appearance since April 9.
Van den Heuvel followed Peters and Jordan Ragan on the mound. With the postseason looming, Whittemore also gave position players Casey Cornwell and Justin Mannens an opportunity to pitch. Mannens closed out the victory with two strikeouts in the ninth, earning his first save.
In addition to his second homer of the season, Modler walked four times and scored three runs.
Lichty and Blake Morin led the Wildcats with three hits in the second game, while Riley Hennings contributed a triple and single while scoring twice. Morin knocked in two runs, including one on a safety squeeze bunt and the go-ahead run on a fifth-inning double. Peters and Chandler Barkdull contributed two hits.
