VVHS, Mesquite, NV-

The Lady Dawgs secured their first place in the 3A Southern Mountain League by drowning the Pirates of Moapa Valley last week, Friday, April 22nd by a score of 5-0. Even the wet weather couldn’t stop the Bulldogs from sailing into the sunset with the win.

The game was all defensive at first as both teams went back and forth for the first 3 innings with the game still scoreless. Then the bats got hot for the Bulldogs and the Pirates mishandled some hits, resulting in 3 errors for the Pirates and 5 runs for the Bulldogs. In the fourth inning, the Lady Dawgs scored 3 runs and never looked back.

The defense was the name of the game as the Lady Dawgs recorded 4 double plays with a Fielding Percentage of .975 with only one minor error. Way better than the Pirates’ three errors. Pitching by the Bulldogs was direct missiles into the strike zones as Riley Price pitched a complete game with 7 Ks and a 0.00 ERA and 6 hits resulting in no scores. Price pitched 7 innings with a low 71 pitches thrown.

The offensive movement went to outfielder Evia Toone who batted .667 average hitting 2 out of 3 at the plate and has been consistent lately with the swing of the bat. Reggi Frei also hit 2 out of 3 with a triple and Anna Tausinga with a .500 and a double. Alex Covarrubias and Marli Wakefield also hit .500 BA.

RBI leaders were tied between three players each knocking in one run. These were Marli Wakefield, Destiny Moaei, and Natalie Plancarte.

The 5-0 victory officially secured their spot at the #1 in the Southern Mountain League for NIAA 3A Division and kept the Moapa Valley Pirates sitting in the #2 spot. Virgin Valley is 11-0 in the league with an overall record of 26-1 with their lone loss from the Nevada athletic powerhouse and private school of Bishop Gorman. Moapa Valley fell to 8-2 in league play and 15-3 overall.

The Lady Dawgs rolled on to meet the 1-10 Canyon Springs Pioneers this last Tuesday, April 26th. They traveled and raided the Pioneers’ campus to end the game in a solid crushing by a score of 16-0 to claim victory.

The game ended after three innings due to the NIAA Mercy Rule as the Bulldogs scored 11 in the 3rd to take a more than 15 run lead, 16-0. The Pioneers had one last chance to get within 15 runs to allow the game to continue but the Bulldogs went 1, 2, and 3 outs in a row to finish the game.

Riley Price again pitched a complete game with 7 strikeouts in 3 innings and only allowing 1 hit. Brooklyn Montoya had 6 chances at outs and recorded a perfect 6 outs. While also the complete Virgin Valley team had a perfect 1.00 Fielding Percentage and not one error. The Pioneers of Canyon Springs recorded a high of 7 errors for the game.

On the bats, Virgin Valley went “bat crazy” as they had 7 players with .500 BA or better. Offensive key players were Destiny Moaei who hit a double and triple to bat 1.00 average, perfect 2 out of 2 at the plate, and added an RBI as well as a BB and most importantly, 2 runs. Natalie Plancarte also added a perfect at the plate game with 2 hits and 2 runs.

Defensively, nothing but utter and complete dominance again for the Bulldogs as they only allowed 1 hit, no errors, and no chance for the Pioneers to even get one run. The other story of the game was stolen bases as the Lady Dawgs added 11 stolen bases as a team with Ari Easton stealing 4 bases.

The path is now set for the Bulldogs to take the lead into a State Championship title, as long as they stay on course and keep dominating as they have been performing and doing. The next matchup for them is 4-6 Sunrise Mountain Miners on Thursday, April 28th at 3:30 pm at Sunrise Mountain. Then they finish up regular season play with two home games against Clark (4-15) on May 2nd and Lincoln County (5-11) on May 4th.

Keep rolling Dawgs and let’s go Big Green!