ROGERS -- Rogers High failed to take advantage of an early scoring chance thanks to a base-running error in 7A-West Conference softball action Thursday afternoon at Veterans Park.
But the Lady Mounties made Fort Smith Northside pay for numerous mistakes in an eight-run fifth inning en route to a 10-0 victory.
7A-West
Softball
Rogers High 10, Fort Smith Northside 0
Northside^000^000^—0^3^4
Rogers^000^181^—^10^10^1
Green, Shepherd (5) and Banks. Massanelli and Kinney. W - Massanelli, 3-1. L - Green.
Junior Maddie Massanelli went 3-for-3 with a walk, drove in two runs and also picked up the win in the circle for the Mounties (7-2, 4-0 7A-West).
Rogers coach Mike Harper acknowledged the Lady Mounties had some mistakes but had some bright spots as well, beginning with Massanelli.
"The base-running mistake cost us at least one run, maybe more," Harper said. "I thought we had to overcome some adversity in some other areas.We competed well and overcame some stuff. We made a couple nice plays in center field. We finally busted loose and hit some balls hard."
Massanelli, who improved to 3-1, gives Rogers a nice 1-2 punch in the circle along with senior Haylee Zimmerman, Harper said.
Maddie pitched really well," Harper said. "She places the ball well, moves it well. It's good to have two girls that can pitch against anybody."
Massanelli allowed only three hits, struck out eight and walked one in six scoreless innings. She also was on base four times and doubled twice. Her two-run double was the big hit in Rogers' eight-run fifth inning.
All eight runs in the inning were unearned thanks to four Northside errors, but Kinney contributed an RBI double and drove in three for the game. Anna Kathryn Smith also went 2-for-4, drove in a run and scored a run.
Northside coach Kelly Nickell said her team's mistake came back to bite them as the Lady Bears (2-3, 1-3) trailed only 1-0 after five innings.
"It all goes back to mental toughness," Nickell said. "When you make one error, it kinda snowballs into two, and you can't have that. We had two or three errors earlier, and they didn't capitalize. They had a couple that we didn't capitalize on, but they did in that one inning and it tore us apart."
Paul Boyd can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWAPaulB.
Sports on 04/03/2015