The Lady Dawgs welcome home Evia Toone after hitting a home run in the 2nd inning (Photo: Damon Jackson)

VVHS, Mesquite, NV-

The pitching for the Lady Dawgs got a little slow start but picked right up with extreme speed as the big green continue their “DOMINATION” Season into the NIAA 3A Southern Regional Playoffs by beating the Sunset Mountain Miners 19-4 for the first-round game.

The Miners came in and played tougher than they have in previous match-ups against the Bulldogs, scoring 2 at the beginning of the game, and taking a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the 1st. The Lady Dawgs got going with an offensive storm that would blow through the Miners for the rest of the whole game.

The Lady Dawgs would score 8 in the 1st inning and stampede another 11 scores in the 2nd, coming off of a huge performance from Evia Toone who absolutely exploded a ball over the outfield fence in the 2nd for a home run. Toone would hit in 4 RBIs for the game.

Riley Price showed up as the big hitter of the night as she has been doing all season. Price was 3 of 3, knocking in 4 RBIs and hitting two doubles. Her perfect 1.00 BA showed her top-notch ability and skills.

Ana Tausinga also added in 1 double with 1 RBI. Alex Covarrubias also had 2 RBIs as well as Natalie Plancarte.

The pitching by Reggi Frei had a little rough start, but Frei settled in and pitched a great for the rest of the game. She had 7 strikeouts with a 2.33 ERA, pitching a complete game.

The defense was a “solid wall” as nothing got past the Lady Dawgs, they had a perfect 1.00 FP and were 17 out of 17 on potential plays. The other deciding factor in helping set up offensive scores was the baserunning skills of the Lady Dawgs. They recorded an astounding 13 stolen bases, led by Reggi Frei who had 5 stolen bases.

Due to the mercy rule, the game was called in the middle of the 3rd after Sunrise Mountain failed to do anything on offense and move within 15 runs. So the concluding score was 19-4 with the Miners recording 9 errors during the game.

The Lady Dawgs now move on to playing Tuesday, May 10th at 4:00 pm PST against #5 seed Pahrump Valley who upset #2 Mountain seed SLAM Nevada, 17-6. The Dawgs host the Trojans at the VVHS campus located at 820 Valley View Drive.

The Lady Dawgs have played Pahrump Valley once before on March 25, resulting in a 12-0 shutout win for the green and white. Pahrump is 8-17 overall with a 6-6 league record. Meanwhile, the Lady Dawgs continue the “Domination” Season with a 30-1 season record and 13-0 league record.

In other NIAA 3A Southern Regional play, the #1 seed of the Mountain League, Boulder City killed Desert Pines, 16-0. While at the same time, the #2 Desert seed Pirates of Moapa Valley stormed and raided the Clark Chargers 18-1.

Moapa Valley plays Boulder City at BCHS at 4:00 pm, Tuesday. Sunrise Mountain moves to the Consolation bracket playing SLAM Nevada at 4:00 pm and Desert Pines plays Clark at 4:00 pm. The winners will go on to play the losers of the winner’s bracket Tuesday games on Wednesday.

Again, the results of the tournament will continue to be updated as all the games end throughout the tournament play. Virgin Valley hopes to extend its 28-game win streak to 29 on Tuesday at 4:00 pm PST at VVHS.