Baseball: 7A-West Conference notebook

Springdale Har-Ber

Wildcats eager for showdown

Springdale Har-Ber coach Ron Bradley circled the Fayetteville games soon after he accepted the Wildcats' job last year.

"I was hoping that game would mean something and it does," Bradley said.

The top teams in the 7A-West Conference will meet today when Fayetteville (17-2, 8-0) hosts Har-Ber (18-5, 6-2) in a doubleheader beginning at 4:30 p.m. Arkansas signee Weston Rogers and Kurt Phillips will take the mound as starters for the Wildcats, who moved into second place in the league after consecutive sweeps over Fort Smith Southside and Fort Smith Northside.

"It's a big challenge but we're looking to sweep, not split," Bradley said of the showdown with the Bulldogs. "We have an opportunity to gain some respect around the league and the state and our goal is to sweep."

Har-Ber added to its momentum with a 3-2 victory over Nixa, Mo., and an 8-0 victory against Ozark, Mo., over the weekend. Brady Patrick had two doubles and three RBI against Ozark while Caleb Daniel earned the victory by holding Ozark to one hit in 5.2 innings.

-- Rick Fires • @nwarick

Springdale High

Bulldogs Still Battling

Springdale High earned a 12-2 nonconference win over Gentry on Friday to bounce back after being swept by Bentonville earlier in the week.

Senior Payton Perry earned the complete-game win for the Bulldogs (9-9, 1-7) and struck out nine in six innings of work.

"Payton was really good on the mound, gave us a lift," Springdale coach Shohn Doty said. "Our pitching had kind of taken a bit of a beating (against Bentonville). He had real good command. Maybe found us another arm as we keep going deeper into conference."

The conference slate doesn't get any easier for Springdale with a trip to Fort Smith Southside today. It will match Doty against Rebels coach Dale Harpenau, whom he coached with for eight years at the University of Arkansas Fort-Smith. Harpenau's son, Ty, is Southside's ace and has signed with Texas Tech.

"In this league, it's amazing," Doty said. "Last week it was (Bentonville's Kasey) Ford. This week it's Harpenau. Next week it's (Heritage's Ty) Harris. There's just so many good arms in the league. For us, we've got to figure out a way to figure him out, maybe get his pitch count up, try to get him out of the game and have a chance to win late."

-- Jimmy Carter • @NWAJimmy

Rogers Heritage

Harris rounding into form

Senior left-hander Ty Harris missed most of last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, but he looks to have hit his stride for the War Eagles.

The Arkansas signee has allowed just two runs (one earned) on four hits over his last 14 innings. He's also struck out 18 and walked only three.

Heritage coach Keith Kilgore said he pitched with confidence in his last two starts.

"He's controlling both sides of the plate," Kilgore said. "He's pitching with command and got all his pitches working now. He's pounding the zone, working ahead of hitters and that makes him effective. His last couple of outings are what this team needs."

Heritage (7-9, 3-5 7A-West Conference) bounced back from the doubleheader sweep at Fayetteville to defeat Sallisaw, Okla., but Kilgore was pleased with the week.

"I liked the way we competed," Kilgore said. "On the road at Fayetteville, that's a strong challenge for anyone and we were tied there in that second ballgame until the sixth inning. We carried that into the Sallisaw game and got a good team effort offensively.

"We had several with multiple hits and Macauley Sams came in in relief and threw well. We had a lot a positives and we hope that will carry over into this week."

The War Eagles play host to Fort Smith Northside today at Veterans Park.

-- Paul Boyd • @NWAPaulB

Fayetteville

Big week for Bulldogs

The Purple'Dogs (17-2, 8-0 7A-West) are well rested for today's conference doubleheader against Springdale Har-Ber, even if that wasn't the actual plan.

Fayetteville had an unexpected weekend off when its game against Sand Springs, Okla., was called off due to rain. The Bulldogs are hopeful to add the game -- or another game -- to the schedule later in the season.

"There's a small chance they might come over and play," assistant head coach Scott Gallagher said. "We play Benton on a Saturday in a couple of weeks and we're looking for a game on that Friday.

"We wanted to play that game. We've got some guys who haven't pitched in a while and we were going to use that game to get them some innings."

Fayetteville continues to thrive on the mound this season, and the strong performances have come from nearly the entire staff. Senior Andy Pagnozzi is 6-1 with a 0.29 ERA. Fellow senior Cody Davenport, now in the No. 2 conference starter role, is 3-1 with a 0.52 ERA. John Boushelle, a third senior, is 4-0 with a 0.26 ERA.

Junior Joey Savin is also 3-0 with a 1.38 ERA and two saves.

"We expected our pitching to be good," Gallagher said. "John Bouchelle has done real well and Savin has stepped up and also done really good.

"Those guys were there last year but we didn't use them as much before (Walker) Powell got hurt and when we had Kyle Pate. But even with Pate gone, there hasn't been any dropoff."

Powell, who is unavailable to pitch this season with an elbow injury, has returned to action as a designated hitter.

"There's a chance he could get back in the field in May," Gallagher said. "He won't be able to pitch, but there's a chance he could play in the field."

Fayetteville closes out the week with a two-day event in Memphis, facing Colliersville, Tenn., on Friday and Germantown, (Tenn.) Houston on Saturday.

-- Vernon Tarver • @NWAVernon

Bentonville

Young shines for Tigers

Bentonville wanted to try something a little different during the second game of its 7A-West doubleheader last week, and it worked well enough to try again.

The Tigers (11-6, 5-3) made a pitching change and gave Drew Young the start instead of Preston Rosales. Young (3-0) made the most of the opportunity and earned the win, allowing just one run and three hits over six innings in a 9-1 decision over Springdale High.

"We were just trying to mix things up a little bit," Bentonville coach Todd Abbott said. "Drew threw really well in that game, and he will get another chance this week."

Bentonville is back on the short road again today as the Tigers travel to Rogers High for a doubleheader. Bentonville tried to get in a nonconference game Friday, but only got to the bottom of the third inning against Springfield (Mo.) Kickapoo before the game had to be called because of rain.

"Mother Nature had other ideas," said Abbott, whose team owned a 3-2 lead when it was called. "That was an impressive amount of rain that hit the field in a short amount of time. We had stopped the game because of lightning in the area, and it wasn't that long before the rain arrived."

-- Henry Apple • @NWAHenry

Sports on 04/21/2015