BENTONVILLE — Rogers Heritage looked to have the momentum early in its 7A/6A-West Conference softball game Tuesday afternoon, but Bentonville came up with the perfect response.

The Lady Tigers put together a big inning to take the lead and pitcher Morgan Vaughan did the rest to help Bentonville claim a tough 4-3 win at the Tiger Athletic Complex.

Madi Hill's RBI single capped Bentonville's four-run bottom of the fourth and gave the Lady Tigers (9-2, 4-0 7A/6A-West) the lead for good.

Bentonville combined three hits, a walk, a double steal and a fielder's choice groundout to rally from a 3-0 deficit.

Alicia Lowrey, who was the only player on either team to get two hits in the game, guided a single into right field to score the Lady Tigers' first run and a second scored on the back end of a double steal. Bentonville's third run scored on Shayli Martin's fielder's choice. Heritage shortstop Taylor Easley's throw to the plate was low and the runner slid in safely to tie the game.

Hill finished the scoring with a single up the middle.

Bentonville coach Kent Early said his team finally got put some hits together and turned them into runs.

"The kids really responded," Early said. "We performed. We got one more run than they did. We'll take it. We finally put some together and were able to put some pressure on them. We had hit some balls decent, but they were with two outs. We should have scored in the first, but we got a bad read on the ground ball."

Vaughan (9-2) did the rest. The senior allowed only two singles and a walk in the final four innings, but left a Lady War Eagle base runner stranded on third in the fourth and fifth. She allowed three runs on six hits, while striking out six and walking one in the complete-game victory.

"Morgan missed her location on some and they put a good swing on it a couple times, but she bowed her neck," Early said. "They hit a ball back at her in the seventh that nicked off her hand. They got their two-hole hitter up and she's a good hitter, a good slapper. She bowed her neck and got the outs."

Heritage (8-8, 2-2) got off to a quick start against Vaughan in the top of the third as Easley drove in two with double into left-center field gap and Kenzi Ziem followed with an RBI-triple into the left-field corner for a 3-0 lead.

However, Vaughan struck out Sabrina Garcia and got Dasha Donahoe to groundout to leave Ziem at third.

Heritage coach Tiffany Taylor said Bentonville put together a couple of hits, but also took advantage of mistakes.

"They had a couple hits, but we made mistakes and it cost us," Taylor said. "We make a play here or a play there and maybe they don't have that big inning. We were hitting Morgan. We played solid except for that one inning."

Bentonville continues conference play at Springdale on Thursday, while Heritage plays host to Holland Hall out of Oklahoma today, then travels to Van Buren on Thursday.

Sports on 04/09/2014