ROGERS -- Freshman Baylor Miles delivered in the clutch for Van Buren on Tuesday.
Miles hit a two-out, two-run single in the top of the seventh inning as the Lady Pointers staged a late rally to defeat Rogers High 2-1 in a 7A/6A-West Conference softball game at Veterans Park.
7A/6A-West Conference
Van Buren 2, Rogers High 1
Van Buren^000^000^2^ — ^2^5^1
Rogers^000^010^0 — ^1^5^0
Stafford and Miles; Zimmerman and Kinney. W — Stafford. L — Zimmeran. HRs — None.
Van Buren pitcher Tori Stafford then put down the Lady Mounties in order in the bottom of the seventh as the Lady Pointers (18-4, 7-1) remain tied with Bentonville in the loss column atop the conference standings. Van Buren is also now two games ahead of Rogers and holds the head-to-head tiebreaker after sweeping the season series.
"Huge win," Van Buren coach Andy Williams said. "Now, we have a huge game with Bentonville on Thursday at our place."
Stafford started the Van Buren comeback with a one-out single and Destiny Moses added a two-out infield single to put runners at first and second. Both runners advanced on a wild pitch and Miles then delivered the game winner with a hard single up the middle.
"Baylor is a tough kid," Williams said. "But that is what she does. She gets hits when we need to have a hit."
Rogers took a 1-0 lead in the fifth when Taylor Erickson singled before scoring on a Van Buren error. But the threat ended when Ryan Vaughn and Jennifer Gonzalez were thrown out at home and second on a fielder's choice by Chandler Little.
"That was big," Williams said. "That was a turning point."
Rogers (12-9, 7-3) also missed scoring opportunities early in the game, including leaving the bases loaded in the first inning. In all, Rogers left seven runners stranded, including five in scoring position. Rogers finished with five hits with Vaughn leading the way with two singles.
"It came down to that we had several opportunities with runners in scoring position, and we didn't get them in," Rogers coach Mike Harper said. "That was the bottom line. You have to give credit to Van Buren, they came up with some big plays. I was proud of our kids and our effort. We just came up a little bit short."
Rogers goes to Fayetteville on Thursday and will entertain Springdale Har-Ber on Friday in its final home game of the season. The Lady Mounties end the regular season next week with games at Siloam Springs and Rogers Heritage.
"We have to have a good end of the week," Harper said. "We are still in good shape to get a good seed at state. We just have to make sure we finish strong here."
Sports on 04/30/2014