FAYETTEVILLE -- Crooked numbers piled up in a big way for Springdale Har-Ber early and often.
The Lady Wildcats sent 13 batters to the plate in the top of the first inning Thursday and scored eight runs before Fayetteville had even come to bat. Har-Ber then added two more in the second and third innings and another four-spot in the fourth, benefiting from five Lady Bulldogs errors in a 16-6 mercy-rule win in five innings during 7A/6A-West Conference softball action at Lady'Dawg Yard.
Prep Softball
7A/6A-West Conference
Springdale Har-Ber 16, Fayetteville 6
Har-Ber^822^40^ —^16^12^3
Fayetteville^220^20^ —^6^6^5
Stockalper and Ray; Pool, Mabry (1) and Luetkmeyer. W-Stockalper, 7-3. L-Pool, 3-5. HR-none.
"When we had a chance to be aggressive on some errors, we were," Har-Ber coach Lynn Lawson said. "But there was a couple of times I didn't think we ran the bases as well as I thought we could."
Har-Ber (12-6, 3-3) belted out 12 hits, with Gracie Bogle leading the way with three hits and three runs. But Fayetteville helped the Lady Wildcats out on several occasions, with a error to open up the top of the first and three more errors in the four-run fourth.
"The two innings they got eight (runs) and four, we started with errors," Fayetteville coach Jason Shirey said. "Their crooked numbers were a lot bigger than ours.
"I thought we competed well at the plate, but we didn't have a good day in the circle or defensively. And it's my job to figure out what we can do to get these kids successful. Right now the buttons we're pushing don't seem to be working, but we'll keep trying."
Emily Stockalper (7-3) allowed six hits and just two earned runs and picked up the win for Har-Ber. While the Lady Wildcats benefited from Fayetteville's struggles on defense, their own rough patches in the field forced Stockalper to work for extra outs in her five innings in the circle.
"If we do that in the 7A tournament, if we're fortunate enough to be in the tournament, we'll be in trouble," Lawson said. "You can't play defense like that and expect to win."
Fayetteville starter Cortnye Pool (3-5) allowed just one earned run in two-thirds of an inning before Maggie Mabry took over for the remainder of the game. In all, just three of Har-Ber's 16 runs were earned.
"(Har-Ber) has been as talented a team as anybody for the last three years, and they're going to take advantage of mistakes," Shirey said. "It's disappointing that we're not playing very well."
Hannah Sharum added two hits and two runs for Har-Ber and Misty Hickman finished 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs. Fayetteville got two hits and three runs from Taylor Crockett and a 2-for-2 effort from Emma Koch.
The Lady Bulldogs (7-8, 1-2) visit Farmington today for a nonconference game, while Har-Ber returns to action Saturday at home against North Little Rock.
Sports on 04/11/2014