Softball: Bentonville West uses 13-run outburst to rout Springdale

Bentonville West’s Hallie Wacaser (1) looks back as she heads for third base Thursday during a game against Springdale High in Centerton.
Bentonville West’s Hallie Wacaser (1) looks back as she heads for third base Thursday during a game against Springdale High in Centerton.

CENTERTON -- Anthony Cantrell noticed how hard his Bentonville West players were hitting the softball Thursday, only to have those shots go directly to a Springdale High player over the first two innings.

Hallie Wacaser changed that with one swing, and the rest of the Lady Wolverines followed her lead. The sophomore's two-run home run began a 13-run outburst in the third inning en route to a 15-0 victory over the Lady Bulldogs in a 7A-West Conference game at the Wolverine Athletic Complex.

BENTONVILLE WEST 15, SPRINGDALE HIGH 0

Springdale^000^0^—^0^1^6

West^01(13)^1^—^15^12^1

Meredith, Trolinger (2) and Hornback; Wacaser and Holt. W-Wacaser. L-Meredith. HR-West: Wacaser, Griffin, Rassi.


7A-West softball standings

^Conf.^All

Bentonville^10-0^21-2

Rogers High^8-1^14-7

Bentonville West^8-2^18-6

Rogers Heritage^5-4^12-6

Van Buren^3-5^11-9

Springdale Har-Ber^2-8^8-13

Springdale High^1-9^5-14

Fayetteville^1-9^1-13

Thursday’s Results

Bentonville West 15, Springdale High 0

Bentonville High 15, Springdale Har-Ber 0

Rogers Heritage 9, Van Buren 4

Rogers High 17, Fayetteville 0

"They made a few plays early," Cantrell said. "I told (Springdale) coach (Ashley) Friend 'I think I jinxed your third baseman because I told her to keep making those plays.' After that, she made a couple of errors.

"We kept swinging it and hit some balls hard, and the bats woke up a little bit."

Wacaser followed a leadoff walk to Jazmine Dodd with her eighth home run of the season, a two-run shot over the left-field fence. It was one of three home runs for West (18-6, 8-2) in the inning as Anna Griffin belted a towering three-run shot to left field, then Ryen Rassi made it back-to-back blasts when she homered after Springdale (5-14, 1-9) changed pitchers.

Wacaser also had a two-run double in the big outburst, and she picked up the win as she pitched a one-hitter over four innings. Springdale's first two batters reached base as Alliyah Brown singled and Maycee Trolinger reached on an error, but Wacaser battled back and retired the next 12 batters -- seven via strikeout.

"Hallie threw really well, and that was good for us," Cantrell said. "We need her to come along and pitch. She pitched a lot for us last year, and she hadn't thrown that much this year. We need to get her some more innings."

West returns to action with a nonconference home game today against and North Little Rock, with Senior Night ceremonies following the game.

Bentonville High 15, Springdale Har-Ber 0

Cailey Cochran recorded her second perfect game and fifth no-hitter, and Haley Cornell belted a two-run home run as Bentonville routed Har-Ber at Hunts Park.

Cochran, a junior right-hander, needed only 40 pitches to go through Har-Ber's lineup and struck out six of the nine batters she faced as she improved to 16-1.

Cornell's home run came as part of a seven-run outburst in the first inning as Bentonville (21-2, 10-0) belted eight hits, including three straight RBI doubles by Morgan Nelson, Megan Crownover and Katelyn Harris. The Lady Tigers followed that with eight runs in the second, including another RBI double by Harris and two-run doubles by Jenna Wildeman and McKenzie Vaughan.

Wildeman and Nelson finished with three hits and three RBIs apiece, while Crownover had two hits and drove in three runs.

Rogers Heritage 9, Van Buren 4

Kayla Paulo went 3-for-3 and scored three runs, while Alexa Enos drove five runs to lead the Lady War Eagles to the 7A-West Conference win Thursday.

Rogers Heritage (12-6, 5-4 7A-West) led 7-1 going into the bottom of the sixth inning before Van Buren erupted for three runs. Allyson Fultz came on to get the final out and pitched a scoreless seventh for the save. Sarah Pollock picked up the win, allowing four runs on nine hits over 5.2 innings.

Fultz added two hits, while Pollock, Lauren James and Lora Brown drove in a run each.

Rogers High 17, Fayetteville 0

The Lady Mounties scored 12 runs in the third inning en route to the run-rule win Thursday.

Journee Zito went 3-for-4 with a home run, drove in four runs and scored twice, while Leyton Robinson went 3-for-3, drove in two runs and scored three times. Allyn Hensley also went 2-for-2 and drove in two runs for the Lady Mounties (14-7, 8-1 7A-West).

Madison Heinle tossed the one-hitter, struck out seven and did not walk a batter.

Preps Basketball on 04/20/2018

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