Lady Vandals get first league win but split series with Serpents

A 9-4 first-inning lead quickly evaporated for the ECHS softball team on Friday, April 3, as the Mineral County Serpents plated three runs in the second, three in the fourth and two in both the fifth and sixth innings to win 14-13 and earn a split of the season series.

ECHS junior Trinity Hudson only gave up two hits and four earned runs, but she walked six over three innings pitched. Freshman Holly Sullivan didn’t fare much better, allowing six earned runs on 10 hits and two walks. 

The Lady Vandals took seven walks themselves and were hit by five pitches. Eureka got its 13 runs on just five hits as six Serpent errors helped move the Vandals around the bases. Freshman Avery Berg had two of them, including a double. She drove in a run and scored twice. Junior Mya Tognotti also laced a double, and sophomore Jayde Rosener scored three runs.

Eureka did win the first game of the doubleheader on Friday, however. They led 10-2 after two innings of play and nearly put the mercy rule into effect after the third. The Serpents scored five runs in the fifth and two in the top of the sixth to make it 13-11, but Eureka answered with four runs in the bottom half of the sixth to put it out of reach.

This time the Lady Vandals didn’t need free passes to plate runs, as Eureka exploded for 20 hits in 39 at-bats. ECHS freshman Darianna Lopez had a day at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a homer, four RBIs and two runs scored. Classmate Julianna Goicoechea was a homer shy of hitting for the cycle, going 4-for-5 with a triple, double, six RBIs and two runs. 

Senior Kylee Patterson had three hits, including a double, and Tognotti continued to rake, with three hits and two runs scored. Berg pitched all seven innings, allowing four earned runs on seven hits and nine walks. She struck out nine.

“The more game exposure for this group the better. We’re still striving to get all the games we can get so we can continue to grow the foundational blocks this program needs,” said Eureka head coach Lindsay Stith. “A lot of things that happen in a game don’t happen at practice, and I think sometimes we struggle with the overwhelming amount of rules that this game has to offer when we try to cram so much knowledge into one season. With that being said, we have a group that strives for competition and we will see great things from this group over the next couple of years.” 

The Lady Vandals (1-6) have struggled to schedule non-league games, which has led to some growing pains for this young roster, but they did get to play the White Pine JV squad on April 4. They lost to the reserves, 16-2, and lost 12-0 to the first string in five innings.

“White Pine is in a different division than us, and their team has been playing ball longer than our program since they have an amazing feeder program over there. I’m thankful they reached out to play. It was good field exposure for our girls and White Pine has very talented young ladies,” Stith commented.

Eureka had a pivotal home game against Carlin (4-5, 2-3) at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, April 7. The team hosts Virginia City on April 18 and Wells on the 21st. The regular season concludes at Carlin on April 28.