GILLETTE—The final week of regular season softball for the Wheatland Lady Bulldogs was a tough run up against two Gillette teams that have dominated opponents this season.  

On Tuesday, the Dawgs played their final home games, splitting a doubleheader with the Campbell County Camels, who finished 13-6 and third place in the 4A East conference. 

The first game was all Camels in the end as they shut out the Dawgs 12-0. Most of the damage was done in the fourth inning when the Camels reeled off nine runs on five hits and three Wheatland errors.

Wheatland was already down 3-0 by the end of the third inning before the Camels put it away in the fourth.

The Camels scored 12 runs on 10 hits while Dawgs managed just three hits and committed eight errors in the game.

Delaney Aurich, Camryn Mickelsen and Macy Jones had Wheatland’s hits. Mackenzie Lockman took the pitching loss.

Things turned around for Wheatland in the second game as the Dawgs matched a pair of first inning runs to tie the game at 2-2, then added three more in the second inning to take a 5-2 lead into the fourth. The Camels got two across the plate in the top of the inning to cut the Dawgs’ lead to one but Wheatland was not to be denied as they answered with two runs of their own to claim the 7-5 win. 

Wheatland scored their seven runs on six hits. They drew seven walks with some patience in the batter’s box. 

Landri Vaughn pitched the win for the Dawgs. She threw 107 pitches of which over half were strikes. Vaughn helped herself at the plate as she had three runs batted in and one hit.

That game would be the final win for Wheatland as they dropped both games of a doubleheader to Thunder Basin on Saturday, 0-14 and 1-20. 

The Bolts did most of the damage in the first game right away as they scored 10 runs in the bottom of the first inning. They added four more in the fourth while holding the Dawgs scoreless. The Bolts scored 14 runs on 15 hits and capitalized on seven errors committed by Wheatland. 

Mickelsen, Vaughn, Rylee and Ayden Coates had hits for the Dawgs.

The Bolts rolled to a 20-1 win in the second game of the day as they jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning and never looked back. They added 12 more in the second inning and outscored Wheatland 4-1 in the fourth inning. 

Mickelsen and Rylee Coates both went 2 for 3 in the game but the Dawgs just couldn’t seem to string anything together to make a difference.  

The Bolts scored 20 runs on 14 hits and took advantage of eight walks and the Dawgs’ nine errors. Nine of Gillette’s 10 batters had at least one hit in the game.

Wheatland closes their regular season with a 7-11 overall record.

The state softball tournament will be held May 16-18  in Gillette at the Energy Capital Sports Complex. 

Tournament brackets are shown on the State Softball page of the whsaa.org site. The tournament will follow a double elimination format.

Games begin Thursday, May 16 at 2 p.m. An opening ceremony for the tournament is scheduled for 1:50 p.m. prior to the first games.

The championship game is scheduled for Saturday, May 18 at 11 a.m. Should an additional game be needed to determine the championship, it will follow at 1 p.m.

The games will be livestreamed on the NFHS Network for a minimal cost. Access the site through the Wyoming High School Activities Association website at: https://whsaa.org/softball/statesoftball.html . Click on the NFHS logo.