It wasn’t the way the Western Nevada College softball team planned to end the regular season.
After shining and showing improvement in its previous three Scenic West Athletic Conference series, including winning three of four games from Snow College, the Wildcats were swept by College of Southern Nevada on Friday and Saturday.
College of Southern Nevada avenged an earlier series defeat to the Wildcats by dominating the weekend set in Henderson, winning 8-3 and 11-2 on Friday and 7-1 and 8-2 on Saturday.
“It’s definitely was not the way we wanted to end our season,” said WNC coach Leah Wentworth. “We had a tough time trying to get the right mix from our pitching staff, and we just didn’t have the timely hit.”
The defeats dropped WNC (18-41 overall and 15-31 in conference play) from fifth to sixth place in the final SWAC standings. The same two teams will meet on the opening day of the Region 18 tournament on Wednesday in Twin Falls, Idaho.
The WNC bats were rattling in the opening game Friday as Alisha Nielsen and Madison Gonzalez totaled three hits apiece. The Wildcats fell behind 7-1 before rallying late. Heather Septon added two of her team’s 10 hits, but the Wildcats had little offense from the rest of the lineup.
The Coyotes didn’t let up in the second game Friday, building a 9-0 advantage before yielding two runs to the Wildcats in the fourth inning.
Ali Lostra delivered two of the Wildcats’ seven hits. Nielsen, Gonzalez, Jennifer Rechel, Jennifer Quam and Alia Cox knocked out singles. Cox knocked in both Wildcat runs with her base hit.
College of Southern Nevada (33-25 overall, 26-21 in the SWAC) completed the four-game sweep by permitting three total runs on Saturday.
“Our bats kind of died behind everything else,” said Wentworth of the second-day sweep. “It’s definitely a little frustrating, but now it’s a chance to see what they need to do to adjust.”
Coyote pitcher Alashanee Medina kept the Wildcats off the bases in the opener, allowing only two hits while striking out five.
Andrea Lee provided WNC’s first hit in the fourth inning after Septon scored an unearned run in the third for a 1-0 WNC lead. But CSN pulled away with a five-run fifth inning. Tiffani Taylor homered and Jasmine Fukuda had three hits for the Coyotes.
Gonzalez provided WNC’s other hit off Medina. In the second game, CSN jumped out to a 5-0 lead after the first two innings against WNC starting pitcher Carlee Beck, with WNC getting its two runs in the fifth on Rechel’s base hit.
Septon, Quam and Sydney Darby each had two hits for the Wildcats, who totaled nine. Rechel, Gonzalez and Nielsen each had a single.
The WNC-CSN regional tournament game begins at 4 p.m. Wednesday.