FAYETTEVILLE — Fayetteville and Siloam Springs made steps in the right direction Tuesday at Bulldog Field.

While the scoreboard read all Bulldogs in Fayetteville's 15-0 run-rule win to open 7A/6A-West Conference play for both teams, the Panthers still came away with some positives.

For Fayetteville, the main goal was taking care of business early and getting as many players quality time on the field as possible. Those objectives were met right away, as the Bulldogs scored 10 runs in the first two innings with the starters on the field, before showing off their depth in the mercy-rule win.

"Siloam is really young, I think they said they didn't have any seniors on their team, so we just wanted to go in and get some guys swinging the bat," Fayetteville coach Vance Arnold said. "We played about 14 guys in each game and that was good. It's tough for those guys to be on the bench in these games."

Fayetteville scored three runs in the first with Ethan King's RBI triple and Blake Power's RBI double capping the inning. The Bulldogs then broke things open with seven more runs in the second. Grant Koch drove in two on a single, Kyle Pate delivered a two-run double and Drew Tyler and Connor Shaw also provided hits in the big inning.

"The big inning got us in the first and second game," Siloam Springs coach Jacob Gill said. "Everybody knows we're going to have some bleeding, but we have to have somebody step up and stop the bleeding."

Andy Pagnozzi (2-0) picked up the win in the first game, allowing three hits with no walks and six strikeouts.

Game 2

Fayetteville 10, Siloam Springs 1

The Panthers (1-5, 0-2) showed progress in the nightcap, scoring an early run in the top of the first and then forcing a full seven innings of baseball before dropping a nine-run decision.

Matthew McSpadden delivered an RBI double to score Dodge Pruitt for a 1-0 Siloam Springs lead. The lead would hold until the bottom of the second when Shaw tied the game for Fayetteville with an RBI single to score Tyler.

Fayetteville (4-1, 2-0) finally broke things open with three runs in the third, getting a two-run inside-the-park home run from Cody Davenport, and an RBI double from Pate.

Pate (2-1) pitched four innings, with two walks and six strikeouts, for the win.

"You don't want to let them hang around too long and then something happens," Arnold said. "Finally around the third inning, one time around the lineup we settled down and we started swinging the bats and running the bases to get in scoring position. So then everybody started feeling better about it."

Fayetteville plays Little Rock Catholic today at Arkansas Tech University. Siloam Springs plays the winner of Cassville, Mo. and Neosho, Mo., in the McDonald's Bulldog Classic Tournament this weekend at the Tyson Sports Complex in Springdale.

Sports on 03/19/2014