The Spanish Springs Cougars got their tournament run started off on the right foot, picking up a 4-3 win over Clayton Valley in their opening pool play game at the Livermore Stampede Thursday afternoon.

The tournament, held in the East Bay Area, features some of the top high school programs in the West. Spanish Springs, the two-time defending Nevada 4A state champion, has two more pool play games today. It will face Foothill of Pleasanton, Calif. at 11 a.m. and Heritage of Brentwood, Calif. at 3 p.m. Bracket play takes place Saturday.

Spanish Springs trailed 2-1 after giving up a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. It seemed to faze the Cougars little. Ashley Decker and Karley Hopkins both singled and then scored on a two-run single by Karly Hall. The runs forged the SSHS crew back on top 3-2.

Clayton Valley pushed across its lone earned run of the game in the bottom of the fifth to deadlock the tourney tilt at 3-3.

Spanish Springs answered again with what proved to be the game-winning run in the top of inning six. Courtney Darby singled, moved up on a sacrifice bunt by Stevie Trevino and came plateward on a run-scoring single by Hopkins.

The local squad took an early 1-0 lead in the game by scoring in the top of the first. Hopkins doubled and scored on a Karlyn Jones single.

Jones worked all seven innings in the circle for the pitching victory. She scattered eight Clayton Valley hits, while striking out six and walking one.

In the fourth frame, when Clayton Valley jumped ahead, it had just one hit, but took advantage of two Cougar throwing errors to do its offensive damage.

Spanish Springs managed just four runs despite rapping out 13 hits.

“We had runners on. We had opportunities to break the game open,” fourth-year Cougars coach Jeff Davidson said. “We hit the ball hard. We only had two strikeouts on the day, but every time we put a couple hits together, then we couldn’t get the runs in. They made some good plays on us. We hit the ball on the nose. It just didn’t fall in.”

The Cougars have had their share of lopsided wins in recent years. Davidson said he was pleased to see his club fight through some adversity and find a way to win Thursday.

“There was no quit in us,” he said. “It would’ve been easy for our kids to mail it in. We were dominating the game offensively, but couldn’t put the runs up. Then they came back and went ahead and then tied it again, but we came back every time. I was pleased with the outcome.”