Fallon’s Vernita Fillmore tries to tag Fernley’s Taylor Tollestrup at second base during the Northern 3A Regional championship game last Saturday.
Photo by Robert Perea
Three times the Churchill County High School softball team has won consecutive state championships. The Greenwave will go for another repeat this week after winning the 3A Northern Regional Tournament last Saturday.
The Greenwave beat Fernley 4–3 in the championship game Saturday afternoon to enter this week’s 3A State Tournament in Pahrump as the North No. 1 seed. The Greenwave will face SLAM, the South No. 2 seed, at 3:30 p.m. Thursday. Fernley will be the North No. 2 seed and face Boulder City at 1 p.m. The championship game of the double-elimination tournament is at 10 a.m. Saturday.
It was the seventh time the Greenwave has faced Fernley in the regional final—and the fifth win in those seven matchups. Last year, Fallon beat Fernley 13–0 in the regional championship and again 11–1 in the state championship game.
“We’ve always had kind of the Fallon–Fernley rivalry, and we see each other a lot, so it’s fun, and these girls are all friends with each other and play travel ball,” Fallon coach Kasey Chu said. “So, it’s fun to compete against them.”
Despite being the defending state champions, the Greenwave entered the regional tournament as the No. 2 seed from the East Division. They beat Elko 4–2 and North Valleys 6–2 on Thursday, then outlasted Lowry in an epic battle on Friday, 13–8, to reach the championship round. Fernley forced the “if necessary” game with an 8–4 win, but Fallon held off Fernley’s seventh-inning rally to claim the championship, 4–3.
“It’s been a long few days for these girls, and they showed a lot of heart and determination,” Chu said.
Just when Fallon seemed poised to ease into the championship game with a five-run fourth inning to take a 7–1 lead over Lowry on Friday, the Buckaroos rallied for six in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game. Lowry then scored in the bottom of the sixth to threaten to send Fallon to the losers’ bracket.
But after Maddison Keller opened the seventh inning by reaching on an error, Sutton Yost doubled her home to tie the game. Kalaya Downs followed with another double to score Yost and give Fallon the lead. Taraylynn Vershum singled home Downs, Fillmore singled in another run to make it 12–8, and Janessa Bettencourt finished the rally with a double to drive home Fillmore.
After coming through the losers’ bracket to reach the championship, Fernley forced the deciding game with an 8–4 win on the back of a five-run fifth inning.
But the Greenwave scored three runs in the third inning on a bases-loaded triple by Yost and carried a 4–1 lead into the bottom of the seventh. Fernley scored on a double by Sara Moffett that brought home Taylor Tollestrup, then added a run on a single by Hunter Lyle. But with two outs and the tying and winning runs on base, Fillmore induced Lauren Smith to hit a comebacker for an easy out at first base, clinching the championship trophy for Fallon.
“We always knew we had a target on our back because everyone wants to defeat the state champs from last year,” Chu said.
Now the Greenwave turn their attention to trying to repeat as state champions with most of the same players back from last year’s team.
“Especially for this group of seniors that we’ve got to see just grow and mature with us, I think it’s going to mean everything,” she said. “I know we can do it.”
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