Lauren Lemburg pitched two strong games against Spanish Springs last weekend and came up empty handed.
On Tuesday, Lemburg came up with another sold effort, and she wasn’t going to be denied.
Lemburg, Carson High’s sophomore left-hander, had a no-hitter for five innings before settling for a 3-hitter in the Senators’ 9-1 win over Wooster in a Northern Division 1 softball game.
The win upped Carson’s record to 5-14 in league heading into Thursday’s game at Wooster. Carson closes the season Saturday at 11 a.m. with a doubleheader at home against Douglas.
Lemburg had 10 groundball outs and three strikeouts. She was all about location, location, location.
“I had to (change speeds a lot), especially with this team,” Lemburg said. “On some of the teams all the girls hit the same. On this team (Wooster), everybody hits different.”
Carson coach Shane Quilling was happy to see Lemburg get rewarded for another good effort.
“She has had three really good games in a row,” Quilling said. “She was really hitting her spots. It’s not like she can just blow the ball by everybody. The big thing for her is locating.
“We got a couple of hits when we needed them. This was a good win, a much-needed win.”
Carson struggled against Vanessa Kostka through the first two innings. After facing Haley Fein of Spanish Springs over the weekend, the Senators struggled mightily against the slower pitching.
“It screwed us up (for a while),” Quilling said. “We’d been working against speed, and she threw us off.”
That all ended in the third when Carson strung together four straight singles after two out to grab a 2-0 lead.
Bailey Allen singled to right, moved to second on Camiell Simpson’s single and scored on Kassidy Cooley’s smash back up the middle. Gabby Winder singled home Simpson and Faith Bigelow hit into a fielder’s choice to end the inning. The Senators tacked on three more runs in the fourth on just one infield hit.
Elise Brady singled and was forced at second by Cat Linkul, who ended up reaching second when Wooster shortstop Erika Handegard threw wildly to first trying to complete a double play. Cassie Maseda walked and Lemburg hit an infield single, loading the bases.
Allen followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0. Simpson was hit by a pitch to reload the bases. Cooley was safe on a throwing error, allowing the other two runs to score.
Meanwhile, Lemburg walked two and another batter reached on an error. She admitted she didn’t know she had a no-hitter through the fifth.
Wooster got its first hit in the top of the sixth on a bunt single, but the runner was wiped out on a steal attempt.
Carson got to reliever Jordan Gross in the last of the sixth, scoring four times, all unearned. Cooley, Winder and Brady all had hits.
Wooster scored its only run in the seventh on a run-scoring single by Malinna Levesque.
Douglas 15, North Valleys 3
Casey Peck, Allison Meyer and Kettja Bennett combined to pound out nine hits as Douglas cruised to a 15-3 Northern Division I victory Tuesday afternoon against North Valleys in Reno.
Douglas (15-13 overall, 11-8 league) won for the fifth time in six games.
Peck hit 3-for-4 with a triple, four RBI and two runs scored. Meyer also went 3-for-5 with three runs scored and one RBI and Bennett went 3-for-4. Chandler Howe also hit 2-for-3 with three RBI and Shaena Robinson homered for the Tigers.
North Valleys (3-19, 3-15) was limited to four hits by Bennett and Amanda Hoffman.
The conference race tightened up somewhat on Tuesday when McQueen (12-7) knocked off Reed (18-1), 6-2. Spanish Springs (16-3) moved to within two games of first-place with a 15-3 win over Bishop Manogue (11-8).
South Tahoe 23, Dayton 4
DAYTON — Aleeah Howe was the only bright spot in the Dust Devils’ lopsided loss to the Vikings. Howe went 2-for-3, including a three-run homer and double.
VARSITY BASEBALL
Dayton edges South Tahoe
RENO — The Dust Devils snapped a 2-all tie with two runs in the fourth and one in the fifth to grab a 5-2 Northern Division 1A victory over South Tahoe Tuesday afternoon at Greater Nevada Field.
The win gives Dayton a 12-9 league record entering this weekend’s series against Truckee. The Dust Devils picked up forfeit wins from Elko, who played an early season series against Dayton with three ineligible players, according to coach Mike Burrows.
“I would have liked to have played Elko (again) without those players,” Burrows said. “I hate to win like this.
“This is the second time we’ve done this (played where the Aces play). The kids had a lot of fun. We needed to secure this win to solidify the No. 5 seed.”
The Vikings scored one in the first, but Dayton came back with two in the bottom of the inning on an error and sacrifice fly by Dylan Baker.
South Tahoe tied the game at 2 in the top of the second, and it remained that way until the fourth when Gage Duke hit a run-scorng triple and Zach Woitas added a run-scoring single. Dayton never trailed the rest of the game.
Isaac Von Schoff worked the first six, scattering nine hits and striking out four. Trevor Burrows recorded the save with a scoreless inning of relief.
