2A STATE: White Pine ace Moore blanks Lynx on five hits
Having a strong fielding pitcher is a valuable asset for any softball team.
White Pine is certainly strong in the circle with the presence of sophomore ace Bailey Moore.
Moore tossed a five-hit shutout Thursday, walking four and fanning six, to lead the Bobcats (20-13) to a 4-0 win over Lincoln County in the opening round of the Class 2A state tournament at The Meadows.
White Pine will face Yerington (22-6) in the winners’ bracket final at 2 p.m. today at The Meadows.
Moore got nine groundouts, handling six of those herself, to ease the burden on her defense.
Moore got nine groundouts, handling six of those herself, to ease the burden on her defense.
“We all know that she’s (Moore) probably one of the best defensive pitchers in the league,” White Pine coach Krystal Smith said. “I like the ball hit back to my pitcher because I know that she’ll field it and make outs.”
Moore was at times overpowering, striking out the side in the first inning, and she was consistently able to keep the Lynx off-balance with a mix of riseballs, dropballs and fastballs.
“I knew I had to be careful with a couple of their hitters,” Moore said. “My dropball was working well, and my defense backed me up and did really well.”
The Lynx (23-7-1) had only one runner reach third base.
White Pine opened the scoring with three runs in the top of the fourth inning by taking advantage of an infield throwing error to go with Sami Scott’s two-run triple to right field.
The Bobcats added the game’s final run in the fifth inning when Moore smacked a one-out ground-rule double to center and then scored on a double by Maa Kingston.
Moore escaped her only real jam in the sixth inning with a double play after Lincoln County’s Kourtney Gloeckner laced a first-pitch fastball over left fielder Chelsea Heggie’s head for a leadoff double.
Taylor Reifsnyder followed Gloeckner and reached first base safely with a chopper to shortstop Alli Huntington, whose throw was high.
An attempt to get Gloeckner taking third base on the play was off target, but Heggie backed up the play and rifled a throw to catcher Kathy Murdock to retire Gloeckner. Murdock then fired to Kingston to nab Reifsnyder at third.
Moore struck out Melanie Florence to end the threat and used another strikeout and two groundouts in the seventh to seal the win.
Moore, Scott and Kingston each finished with two hits.
Lincoln County will face Needles in an elimination game at noon.
Yerington 4, Needles 1 — Katie Nicholas tossed a two-hitter and the Lions (22-6) got all the offense they needed by scoring two unearned runs in the bottom of the first inning on their way to a win over the Mustangs (22-10).
Alex Roberts ripped a two-run, two-out triple in the first after the Mustangs dropped a fly ball that would have ended the inning.
Needles’ only offense came in the fourth inning when Dakota Lillard stroked a one-out double and Holly Laswell had a two-out RBI single.
