ROGERS — Mike Harper had a good feeling going into the season that the Rogers High Lady Mounties were capable of making a deep run at the Class 7A State Softball Tournament.
Rogers reached the quarterfinals last spring and the Lady Mounties had a wealth of talent and experience on the roster.
“We had seven, eight players coming back, we knew we had a chance to go deeper than we did the year before,” Harper said.”
But Harper’s confidence was shaken on April 18 after the Lady Mounties dropped a 7-3 decision at Van Buren. That loss came three days after a home loss to Bentonville.
“After the Van Buren game, I didn’t know if we would win another game,” Harper said.
Rogers won a lot more games. The Lady Mounties rebounded with a 4-3 win against Bentonville a day after losing to Van Buren and they would go on to get the No. 2 seed from the 7A-West Conference at the state tournament.
Rogers then defeated Conway (2-0) and Fort Smith Southside (6-1) to reach the Class 7A State Championship Game. But the season ended with a 10-0 loss to North Little Rock.
For taking Rogers to the title game for the first time since 2000, Harper is the All-NWA Media Big 7 Softball Coach of the Year.
“We responded after we played horribly at Van Buren,” Harper said. “The kids just came back and went to work, just like they had all year long.”
The future is still bright for the Lady Mounties. They lose just two senior starters — Cody Scoles and Kristen Duch — and the incoming sophomore class is talented, and deep. Tops on the list of returnees is rising junior pitcher Haylee Zimmerman and rising senior shortstop Chandler Little.
“We are going to be fairly young next year,” Harper said. “We had sophomores and freshmen that played this year. We gained some valuable experience getting to the state finals. From a leadership stand point, Cody Scoles will be tough to replace and Kristen Duch batted over .300.”
North Little coach Anthony Cantrell said after the win against Rogers in the title game that he would not be surprised to see the Lady Mounties make a return trip next year.
“We beat a good team,” Cantrell said.