Lady Wave going strong

The Lady Wave softball team crushed Fernley’s Lady Vaqueros 11-1 Tuesday, making their league standing 11-0.

The Wave secured a six-run lead in the first inning. Fernley struggled to get on the bases but held Fallon to one run in the second inning.

In the fifth inning Fallon’s Stacy Kalt hit a home run, making the score 8-0. Fernley made it on the board in the sixth inning with an in-the-park home run by Alexandra Conder; during the play, Fallon’s Alexis Jarrett collided with another player and there was concern over her condition, allowing the runner through — Jarrett was able to return to play though and caught the next ball that came her way.

“She toughed it out and stayed in the game after I made sure there wasn’t any harm or anything more serious,” said Fallon coach Tammie Shemenski.

The game ended in the bottom of the sixth inning with Jordan Byer hitting a three-run homer.

Fallon’s Faith Cornmesser was pitcher of record, playing the whole game and making nine strikeouts. Byers led the team at bat, scoring three runs and four RBI; Kalt and Caitlyn Welch were just behind her with two runs each.

Shemenski said she was happy with how the game went, adding Fernley is a team they always have to look out for. She said a one-sided victory one day could be a nail-biter the next.

The Fallon coach said she would have liked to see her players drive the ball more and have fewer pop-ups. Cornmesser also noted this was something that held them up in the middle of the game.

“We just have to keep working in practice,” Cornmesser said. “Make sure we don’t pop the ball up … if we keep working on that, that’ll be better in the next couple days of practice.”

The Wave plays at home again this weekend. Today the team takes on Elko at 3 p.m. and tomorrow for a doubleheader at 11 a.m. The teams already met this season for a scrimmage. Shemenski noted everyone has more experience now and said she expects a completely different game.

“I always tell the kids, don’t take what we did at the beginning of the season,” she said. “That’s just something new and people getting out on the field; take it game by game, because everyone gets better as the season gets longer, everybody gets better all the time. So we’re not going to take it lightly and we’re going to go at it just like a state championship game.”

Cornmesser said all the teams are very different compared to last year. She recalled a number of seniors graduated from the league, so every team has a younger group of players. She said they need to be ready for anything against Elko.