Williams News Logo
Grand Canyon News Logo

Trusted local news leader for Williams AZ and the Grand Canyon

Williams gambles skills at Laughlin tourney<br>

Williams High School Lady Vikings softball player Kassie Pettit attempts to add to the scoreboard for Williams by sliding into home plate during the girls’ first game — against the Nevada Wells team — at the recent weekend tournament in Laughlin.

“It was excellent practice for us for our conference season, which starts Friday,” commented Head Coach Ann Wells, who added how pleased she was with the team’s performance in only their first few outings.

The girls started off with a 9:30 a.m. 6-5 win on March 11 against the Wells team out of northern Nevada — the same bunch the Lady Vikings beat in last year’s championship tournament game.

Michelle Sandoval pitched and coaches say the team had only a few fielding errors in their first game of the day.

Later on, Williams racked up another win — this one an 18-0 mercy rule slaughtering of Tonopah.

Though the game ended in just three innings, Lady Vikings pitcher Michelle Barnes allowed Tonopah one hit.

The day ended for Williams with a 13-2 win over Grand Canyon. Sandoval pitched and the win, Wells said, launched the girls into the number one seed in their pool for the tournament.

On March 12, action for the Ladies started with an early morning 8 a.m. 18-2 win over Indian Springs in which Barnes was the pitcher.

The second game of the day, for which Sandoval pitched, gave the girls a 24-3 victory over West Wendover. The win put the Lady Vikings into the championship game against their first opponent of the tournament — Wells.In that game, which was of course, the last in the tourney for Williams, the Lady Vikes lost to Wells 9-8, ranking them second overall for the tournament. Sandoval, who sent seven Wells players back into the dugout with her efforts by game’s end, pitched once again and held the opposition in a two-two tie until allowing four Wells runs in the third inning. Williams answered back in the fourth with two runs for a score of 6-4.

In the top of the fifth and final inning, however, the Wells team scored three more runs for a 9-4 showing on the scoreboard. The Ladies managed another three runs of their own in their last at-bat, but it wasn’t enough to top the opponent’s nine points.

“Just too many errors — that was the story on that game,” coach Wells said.

By the tournament’s end, Lady Vikes player Jennifer Solano had racked up a two-run homer and one triple, Tricia Gaines made her mark with a three-run home run and both Sandoval and Kandice Zabala hit three triples each. Barnes and player Courtney Wells each knocked in a triple of their own as well.

“Overall, we had a lot of good hitting and some good plays,” Wells said. “We have to cut down on the errors. If we do that and keep up on our hitting, we should do well.”

The girls next do battle on the road in their first regular conference game versus Mayer on Friday at 1p.m. and 3 p.m.

Boys

The Williams High School Vikings varsity baseball team took home three victories out of four tournament games played in Laughlin March 11-12. Unlike their Lady Vikings counterparts, the boys weren’t playing toward any championship ranking at the event, but rather played a simple round robin of four contests. Each game was a shortened five-inning match.

Their first battle was a Friday morning 5-4 win over Laughlin. Coach John Reilly was happy with the performance of Matthew Dent, who pitched the entire game.

“He did really well. He went the distance,” Reilly said.

With the help of Derek Gauna and a Lucas Zabala triples, the Vikes won in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI from Cesar Davalos after Laughlin had tied the game at four in the top of the fifth with one of their own.

In the afternoon, Williams faced and lost against the Wells Nevada team, 5-0.

“They had a really good pitcher and we never really caught up with his fastball,” Reilly explained.

Davalos was on the mound for the Vikings in that contest.

Saturday morning brought another win for the Vikings, this one an 8-5 victory over Tuba City Gray Hills.

Gauna started the game for Williams, but after some trouble finding the plate, coaches subbed in Chance Grantham during the second inning, who did slightly better against the Tuba hitters.

The game was 8-2 with Williams in the lead when in the bottom of the fifth, Tuba City scored three times, brining the match to 8-5 at the end.

Saturday afternoon was the last game for Williams in the tourney. They won a short 12-1 victory against Nevada’s Round Mountain when tournament officials called the mercy rule in the third inning.

Mano Zabala started for the Vikings and did well before Dent finished out the game.

“We had been looking at Mano and he did well,” Reilly said, adding that Mano was also chosen to start because the majority of regular pitchers had already played and coaches were interested in how he would do.

Williams scored four times alone in the first inning as the Round Mountain pitcher seemed to struggle, walking quite a few players.

Though no final championship game was played, Reilly believes the team ended up tied for first place with Laughlin and Wells.

Coaches overall were happy with the varsity Vikings’ performance, but said work was still needed with the team being forced to practice mainly in the WHS gym so far.

“We still have a lot of fundamentals to work on as far as fielding goes,” Reilly said. He added that the boys will also need to practice hitting some more and will need to improve overall before the end of regular season play in late April.

The Vikings go on the road to battle Mayer Friday at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. and may have their first home game on Saturday against Fredonia if the weather holds out. Reilly said the Vikings junior varsity team is scheduled to play at noon and 2 p.m., but varsity may play as well.


Donate Report a Typo Contact