Tonopah falls to Indian Springs in first round of state softball playoffs

TONOPAH — High school softball season has ended after the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association wrapped up its state championships on Saturday.

Tonopah made it to the Southern Regional championship playoffs but the Muckers were the first to be booted off the playoff bracket after losing their second game to Indian Springs 14-13.

Pahranagat Valley was the top team in the 1A Southern Region league, where they won each game by one run over the competitors. At the championship game for the region, Pahranagat Valley played against Round Mountain once again and won 8-7.

Both Pahranagat Valley and Round Mountain advanced to the 1A state championship to join the northern teams. In the first round, Round Mountain lost their game while Pahranagat Valley beat Carlin, the runner-up to the northern championship game. The two top teams in the 1A league faced off in the second round where Coleville won the first game 7-4. But In the state championship game Coleville took the win and the trophy for northern Nevada.

In the 3A class the Churchill Greenwaves, a northern school, took the win and the top class 5A trophy went to a southern school, Coronado.

Tonopah has never won a state championship, but it has made it to the end of the championship playoff game before. Last year the team fell in the 1A State Championship game 15-0. In the last three recorded 1A Southern Regional championships the Muckers have come in second to Pahranagat Valley.

Highest performing Muckers

Tonopah had some high performers on their team that stacked up against statewide leader-boards.

Gabrielle Strozzi (5) finished the season in the top 35 players, according to Maxpreps, with a .571 batting average. She had a total of 40 hits when she was at bat 70 times. When compared to the 1A class leader board, she would place within the top 10. Macie Strozzi (11) placed in the top 50 batting averages in Nevada with an average of .543 with 51 hits after being at bat 94 times.

Coleville has the top spot, where Katelyn Lange had a .722 batting average with 52 hits and 18 home runs, which was the most in the division. Closest to her stats was Danyel Micheli with Carlin, who had a .662 batting average. Lange also had the most runs batted in the division with a total of 57, nearly 10 more than the No. 2 spot with 49 runs batted in.

Macie Strozzi also placed in the the top three players who had the most runs in the division, where she scored 58 runs. Savannah Muns had a total of 50, which got her No. 6, Gabrielle Strozzi got No. 7 and Taylor Thomas (4) had the No. 8 slot.

Thomas had the highest ranked runs batted in with a total of 44, which placed her in the division as No. 6.

Among the top 10 earned run averages in the 1A division, Savannah Muns (25) placed seventh after her 7.71 average, where she pitched a total of 105 strikeouts. The highest ranked player from Carlin, with a 3.09 was Micheli, followed by Coleville’s Lange with a 3.51 average and 223 strikeouts.

Tonopah had one of the top two fielding percentages in the division with a .992 where they scored 125 putouts.

This year the Muckers are losing five of their players as they will be graduating. This includes Rylee Crawford (12), Jenna Klapper (27), Muns, Thomas, and Ashlee Thompson (22).

Contact Jimmy Romo at jromo@pvtimes.com. Follow @JimmyRomo.News on Instagram.