Lady Trojans down Vikings, inch closer to playoffs

The Lady Trojans are beginning to hit their stride as the regular season nears its end.

Pahrump Valley won their second game in a row after a massive win over the Valley Vikings on Monday afternoon in Las Vegas.

The Trojans have now won five of their last seven games, four of which were league games. They have now put a bit of a cushion in the league standings between themselves and the third-place SLAM Nevada Bulls.

Pahrump Valley got a huge win over the Bulls on Saturday afternoon, winning the game 15-13 in nine innings.

Seniors Haven Nelson and Shania Hopkins each had four hits and three RBIs for the Lady Trojans in their win against the Lady Bulls.

Nelson and the rest of the Pahrump Valley team kept the scoring going in their game against the Vikings.

Nelson finished Monday’s game going 4-for-4 with four runs batted in. All four of her hits went for extra bases. She hit three doubles and a triple against the Vikings.

Sophomore Ava Chiancone got the start on the mound for Pahrump Valley.

She pitched a 3-inning complete game, giving up four runs on three hits. Chiancone struggled a bit with her command. She walked six batters and hit one over the three innings.

The Trojans led 2-1 after the first inning before the floodgates opened in the second inning.

Due to multiple fielding and throwing errors by the Vikings, Pahrump scored 17 runs in the inning to blow the game wide open and jump out to a 19-1 lead going into the bottom of the second inning.

Valley committed eight errors in the second inning leading to 22 Pahrump Valley batters coming to plate in the inning.

The only Trojan batter who came to the plate in the inning that didn’t score at least once was Abrianna Garcia. The only reason why she didn’t score was because she came in as a pinch hitter and got called out for contact with the ball while being outside of the batter’s box.

Senior Jazmine Aldana hit a 2-run inside-the-park home run to left center field. Aldana finished the afternoon going 3-for-4 with two RBIs and scored all three times she reached base.

After a “quiet” third inning – scoring just five runs – the Lady Trojans came away with a 24-4 victory for a season sweep over the Valley Vikings.

Pahrump Valley now holds an 8-10 overall record and a 5-2 record in league play.

The Lady Trojans have just four games left in the regular season with three of those games being league games.

Pahrump needs just one league win to lock up one of the top two spots in the Mountain League. They’re just one and a half games behind Boulder City for the top spot in the league. The two teams still have one more game against each other this season.

The Lady Trojans will travel back to the Vegas Valley on Thursday, April 20. This time, they’ll be taking on the Jaguars of Desert Pines. Pahrump won the first game between the two teams 17-7 earlier this month.

First pitch of Thursday’s game is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

Contact sports writer/editor Danny Smyth at dsmyth@pvtimes.com. Follow @_dannysmyth on Twitter.