Bentonville knocks off Springdale, remains unbeaten in April

Bentonville High’s Tyler Johnson (right) high-fives teammate Cameron Duncan (23) after scoring in the first inning Monday against Springdale High at the Tiger Athletic Complex in Bentonville.
Bentonville High’s Tyler Johnson (right) high-fives teammate Cameron Duncan (23) after scoring in the first inning Monday against Springdale High at the Tiger Athletic Complex in Bentonville.

BENTONVILLE -- April is starting to look very good for Bentonville High's baseball team.

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Jacob Williams of Bentonville High delivers from the mound Monday against Springdale High.

The Tigers claimed their fourth consecutive victory this month, despite spotting Springdale an early 2-0 lead, as they posted a 6-4 victory over the Red'Dogs during 7A-West Conference action Monday at the Tiger Athletic Complex.

Bentonville High 6, Springdale High 4

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Roach and Roberts. Williams, Kneeshaw (7) and Knight. W-Williams, 6-5. L-Roach, 4-4. Sv-Kneeshaw (1). HR-None.

Bentonville (9-8, 5-2) manufactured nine hits off Springdale ace Andrew Roach (4-4) and took advantage of five Red'Dogs errors to stay within reach of Fayetteville and Van Buren in the league standings. This came after Springdale jumped out to an early 2-0 lead with three first-inning doubles off Jacob Williams.

"We're just putting it all together," Bentonville coach Todd Abbott said. "It's everybody picking everybody up, and it's a total team effort. What you see is a product of everybody doing their part.

"It's starting to come together. We're not quite there yet, but it looks good."

Nathan Lyons and Tyler Johnson quickly erased Springdale's early lead with back-to-back RBI singles with one out in the first, then Johnson scored Bentonville's go-ahead run on Destyn Adkins' solid two-out single to right. The Tigers never trailed again, although Springdale (11-9, 3-4) had its share of runners in each inning against Williams, who pitched six innings.

Bentonville did pick up some insurance in the fourth when Roach tried to pick off Cade Lastovica at third and the throw went into foul territory. Lastovica scored as Bryce Davis raced to third, then he scored on Kam'ron Mays-Hunt's second double into center field and made it 5-2.

Those runs were key because Springdale cut it to 5-4 on Roach's two-run single with two out in the sixth. Williams retired the next batter to end the inning, then Ryan Kneeshaw retired the side in the seventh for the save.

"We've made a lot of good offensive approaches," Springdale coach Scott Johnson said. "We're hitting everybody's number one, but we're making so many dadgum mistakes defensively. It's killed us.

"At some time, we've got to make routine plays routine. If we make routine plays, we're in that game with a chance to win. We just made too may mistakes, and that's been our Achilles heel."

Van Buren 7, Rogers High 3 (9 innings)

The Mounties took advantage of two Van Buren errors to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh, but the Pointers came up with a big inning to win in extra innings at Veterans Park.

Conner Catron went 3-for-5 and drove in three runs, including a two-run triple in the ninth to break the game open. Landrey Wilkerson also went 3-for-4, scored two runs and drove in one for the Pointers (14-1, 6-1 7A-West). Trevor Johnson picked up the win with two scoreless innings of relief.

McKaden Templeton went 2-for-4, drove in a run and scored a run for Rogers (6-10, 1-6). Max Horton also added two hits. Templeton got the no-decision, despite allowing three runs (none earned) on six hits over 6.2 innings. Mason Griffin took the loss in relief.

Fayetteville 18, Rogers Heritage 0

Logan Carr went 2-for-2 with a double and a triple and drove in three runs to lead the Purple Bulldogs (11-9, 6-1 7A-West) to the five-inning romp.

Jeff Sinacore also drove in three runs, while four other Fayetteville players had two hits each. Miller Pleimann picked up the win, throwing 2.1 scoreless innings. He struck out two and did not walk a batter. Three Fayetteville pitchers combined on a two-hitter. Heritage fell to 4-12 overall and 2-5 in the 7A-West.

Sports on 04/11/2017

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