Rogers High

Lady Mounties On Roll

The Lady Mounties will take a little momentum into their home opener today against Siloam Springs at Veterans Park.

Rogers (4-8, 2-2 7A/6A-West Conference) defeated Springdale Har-Ber 6-4 Tuesday heading into today's league game against the Lady Panthers at 5 p.m. Rogers, which advanced to the Class 7A State Championship game last season, has had three scheduled home games either snowed or rained out.

"The forecast looks good, and our kids are wanting to play at home," Rogers coach Mike Harper said. "Siloam Springs always seems to play their best against us, so we are going to have to be ready to play. We have to get to the state tournament, and we have some lofty goals. But we are going to have to play better."

Rogers got key hits up-and-down the line up against Har-Ber, but Harper said the difference was that the Lady Mounties did not commit an error.

"We responded really well against Har-Ber," Harper said. "We are starting to play a little better, click a little bit. It is really hard to win on the road in this league. Har-Ber is going to make the state tournament, and they have hitters up-and-down the lineup. That was a good win for us."

Maddie Massanelli and Jennifer Gonzalez were a spark at the plate against Har-Ber. Massanelli had three hits and three RBIs while Gonzalez collected a pair of hits in the leadoff spot.

"It's nice to have Maddie back, and she is still getting her timing back," Harper said. "Jennifer had a little slump there, but she is our catalyst."

-- PAUL NIELSEN • @NWAPaul

Rogers Heritage

Lady War Eagles Still Struggling With Consistency

Rogers Heritage's overall record of 8-8 and 2-2 in 7A/6A-West Conference play tells the story of its season to this point.

The Lady War Eagles have put together some solid performances, but they have also struggled at times. The past week illustrates that perfectly as they committed 14 errors in back-to-back losses at the River City Rumble on Friday, but came back on Saturday to win three of four.

Heritage had a similar experience in a 4-3 loss at Bentonville on Tuesday. The Lady War Eagles jumped to an early 3-0 lead, but gave up four in one inning and couldn't recover.

"I'm looking for some consistency," Heritage coach Tiffany Taylor said. "We'll play great and then we'll have a bad game. That's kinda been our Achilles' heel all year. We're just inconsistent. I think that comes from inexperience. Hopefully, it will kick in second time through conference play."

The Lady War Eagles continue conference play today at Van Buren.

--PAUL BOYD • @NWAPAULB

Fayetteville

Postponements A Hassle For Fayetteville

All teams in the 7A/6A-West softball conference have had to deal with games being cancelled or postponed at one time or another due to rain or poor field conditions. But no team has had worse luck with the wet stuff lately than Fayetteville.

The Lady Bulldogs had both games earlier this week postponed, when its trip to Van Buren was called off for a second time on Monday. Then on Tuesday, a trip to Siloam Springs was also delayed. Fayetteville will now attempt to play at Van Buren on May 9, while the plan is to make up its game at Siloam on Monday, April 14.

Fayetteville (7-6, 1-1 7A/6A-West) is one or two games behind all other teams in conference games played, but did managed to get in a nonconference contest against Bryant on Saturday. The Lady'Dogs dropped the game, 6-3, with poor defense standing in the way. Despite Courtnye Pool allowing no earned runs in the circle, Fayetteville committed six errors in the field in the loss.

The Lady'Dogs host Springdale Har-Ber at 5 p.m. today.

-- VERNON TARVER • @NWAVernon

SPRINGDALE HAR-BER

Home Runs Not Enough

Springdale Har-Ber provided the big hits at Hunt's Park Tuesday, but it wasn't enough during a 6-4 loss to Rogers.

Kyle Buttram and Gracie Bogle each hit solo home runs and Tiffani Ray went 4 for 4 for Har-Ber, which collected eight hits. But Rogers won the game after scoring five of its six runs in the fourth and fifth innings.

Bogle threw two wild pitches and walked two batters in the fifth before being replaced by Emily Stockalper, the Har-Ber starter.

"We want our pitchers to throw strikes," Har-Ber coach Lynn Lawson said. "If we have a hit-by-a pitch when a batter is in tight, that's something that happens. But we don't ever want to walk people."

Har-Ber also committed three errors.

"We had some mistakes on defense I didn't think we'd make," Lawson said. "We had an out at home that was ruled safe because we were off the plate. I didn't argue the play because the umpire made the right call. I want everybody to play the game with integrity and passion."

Har-Ber (6-4, 1-3) will face Fayetteville today after a makeup game at Siloam Springs Wednesday night.

-- RICK FIRES • @ NWARICK

Bentonville

Rally Keeps Lady Tigers In First Place

Bentonville remains in control of the top spot in the 7A/6A-West, but it hasn't been easy staying there.

The Lady Tigers (9-2, 4-0) had to bounce back from a 3-0 deficit Tuesday afternoon and claimed a 4-3 win over Rogers Heritage in a game that was moved to the Tiger Athletic Complex earlier in the day. The win keeps them one-half game ahead of Van Buren heading into today's game at Springdale High.

"We should have scored a run in the first inning," Bentonville coach Kent Early said. "We had a triple and should have scored, and that would have helped things out. The bottom line is we were down 3-0 in the fourth inning of a conference game, and the kids responded."

Early said his team did a good job with base hits earlier in the game, but they came after two were out. That changed in the fourth as the Lady Tigers combined three hits and a walk with a Heritage error to score their runs.

"It's hard to extend an inning with only one out," Early said. "We were able to get some hits early on and have a first and second situation, then we were able to move some runners around."-- HENRY APPLE • @NWAHenry

Sports on 04/10/2014