Baseball Mounties blank Tigers, maintain share of first place in 7A-West

Rogers High School pitcher McKayden Templeton delivers a pitch Monday against Bentonville at Veterans Park Mounties Field in Rogers.
Rogers High School pitcher McKayden Templeton delivers a pitch Monday against Bentonville at Veterans Park Mounties Field in Rogers.

ROGERS -- Rogers High missed out on some early scoring chances, but the Mounties' defense came up with some key plays combined with some Bentonville base-running gaffes to claim a 4-0 win and stay in a first-place tie in the 7A-West Conference on Monday evening at Veterans Park.

The Rogers duo of McKaden Templeton and Mason Griffin combined on a six-hit shutout,, but they got some help from their defense.

Rogers High 4, Bentonville 0

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Rogers 021 100 x 4 9 1

Gottula and Golden; Templeton and Seldomridge. W-Templeton. L-Gottula. HRs-None.

Conference Overall

Springdale Har-Ber 8-1 20-2

Rogers High 8-1 16-4

Van Buren 5-2 15-3

Fayetteville 5-4 12-8-1

Bentonville High 3-4 9-8

Bentonville West 3-6 13-8

Springdale High 2-7 9-12

Rogers Heritage 0-9 3-16

Monday’s Scores

Rogers High 4, Bentonville 0

Van Buren 10, Springdale High 9

Springdale Har-Ber 9, Fayetteville 0

Bentonville West 4, Rogers Heritage 1

Today’s Games

Rogers High at Bentonville

Springdale High at Van Buren

Fayetteville at Springdale Har-Ber

Bentonville West at Rogers Heritage

Sophomore shortstop Sal Jacobo made a sparkling play on a hard-hit ball to his right and alertly threw to third to get Payton Allen to help thwart a Bentonville rally in the third inning. He made a similar play in the fourth to get another runner at third. Jacobo also made a strong relay throw to nab a Tigers base runner at the plate.

Griffin also came on with two outs and bases loaded in the top of the sixth and got the final out without throwing a pitch. Instead, he picked Andrew Nagelson off third base to preserve the shutout.

Rogers coach Matt Melson liked the way his team made plays in key situations to notch their 12th win in the Mounties' last 14 games. The pickoff to end the sixth was huge though, Melson said.

"I thought we left some runs on the table there in that first inning, but Sal made a couple nice plays and a strong relay there," Melson said. "We've been scoring those runs, but you get in a tight game and I thought they guys responded well. I didn't think Templeton was super sharp, but I thought he was gutsy.

"He's got a good move and we've done it several times this year. It's one of those deals if you can work it and get it to go your way, it's more of a psychological deal than anything. Four all of a sudden feels like 40."

Templeton got the win, allowing no runs on six hits over 5.2 innings. He struck out eight and walked four. Griffin pitched the final 1.1 innings without allowing a hit.

Rogers (16-4, 8-1 7A-West) got all the runs it would need with two in the second as Jay Watson led off with a triple and scored on a Bentonville throwing error. Jeb Sample's fielder's choice groundout pushed the Rogers lead to 2-0. Watson added a sacrifice fly in the third and Sample scored in the fourth on Hayden Seldomridge's double.

Seldomridge and Andrew McGlynn had two hits each for Rogers (16-4, 8-1 7A-West), while Allen and Ryan Kneeshaw had two hits each for Bentonville (9-8, 3-4).

Bentonville coach Todd Abbott said the runners lost on the base paths were no doubt key.

"How many potential runs did we give away?" Abbott said. "These guys have been playing baseball a long time. they know. What's key here is to learn from it. Should have been a 1-0, 2-0 game at the most. Overall, it was a good ballgame. We've got to play clean baseball, especially between the ears."

Bentonville West 4, Rogers Heritage 1

Joey Aden's third-inning bloop double drove in a run, then he scored on a throwing error as West knocked off Heritage at the Wolverine Athletic Complex.

That was all the cushion Kender Carroll needed as the left-hander, despite control problems with seven walks, held Heritage (3-16, 0-9) to one run on two hits over 5.1 innings. Jaron Jenkins pitched the final 1.2 innings to record the save.

The War Eagles cut it to 2-1 in the fifth on Kennan's bunt drove in Clines. West (13-8, 3-6), however, cushioned its lead with an RBI single by Zach Trammell in the sixth, then another run came when Seth Schonauer's grounder to short was mishandled.

Springdale Har-Ber 9, Fayetteville 0

Blake Adams threw a four-hit shutout to lead Springdale Har-Ber past Fayetteville.

Adams struck out six and walked three. Mac McCroskey had three hits and three RBIs to lead the Wildcats at the plate.

Har-Ber scored three runs in both the fifth and sixth innings to break the game open.

Van Buren 10, Springdale High 9

The Pointers scored two runs in the top of the seventh inning to rally past Springdale in a back-and-forth game at Tyson Park.

Van Buren (15-3, 5-2) scored two runs in the first inning, but the Bulldogs put up a four-spot in the second and the game see-sawed from there.

The Bulldogs (9-12, 2-7) opened the bottom of the second inning with four consecutive singles by Christopher Harvey, Will Mueller, Max Doshier and Austin Wages to tie the score at 2-2. Tanner Sargent and Wages later score for a 4-2 lead.

Van Buren regained the lead in the third with three runs, then tacked on single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth to take a 8-4 lead before the Bulldogs erupted for five runs in the sixth to retake the lead 9-8. Sabino Nino drove in two runs with a double.

Jackson Hurst singled to open the Van Buren seventh, and Landry Wilkerson drove in two runs with a single.

Hurst hit two home runs for Van Buren and drove in four runs. Nino was 3-for-4 with three RBIs and Wages was 2-for-4 with three RBIs for Springdale.

Sports on 04/17/2018

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