FARMINGTON -- Prairie Grove competed in the Farmington/Fayetteville softball tournament over the weekend and the Lady Tigers were ousted in two games, losing 7-3 to Conway on Friday and 7-0 to Fort Smith Southside on Saturday.
Conway scored a pair of runs in the first inning on a two-run double with two outs but Prairie Grove got the next batter out. The Lady Tigers went down in order in the first inning but got a leadoff runner on in the second when Brooke Ketzler was hit by a pitch. Mackenzie Terry drew a walk and Desirae Rivera's bunt single loaded the bases. Emily Kruse fouled off four pitches after drawing her second strike and battled to a full-count before drawing a walk which scored a run for Prairie Grove. After two strikeouts, Kylie Scott belted a 2 RBI double into deep center field giving the Lady Tigers a 3-2 lead but Conway came back with five runs in the third inning and the contest ended with the Wampus Cats ahead, 7-3, when the time limit was reached. Games in the tournament were played for 70 minutes and Praire Grove coach Dustin Beck said this was a factor in Friday's loss.
"It made us throw stuff over the plate and made it a little worse than it was," Beck said. "Everybody we've played so far is 7A or 6A except one [team]. It's been a tough schedule so far. We have a lot of young girls. They need more time on the field. There are no seniors."
Prairie Grove could not get their bats unwound against Southside on Saturday managing just one hit. The Lady Tigers held the Rebels to 4 hits, but walked in a run in the first and gave up a solo home run in the second to Paige Mendoza, who recently signed with Crowder College. Two more runs scored when a throw sailed past first and a return throw from right field was dropped at the plate. Haley Hogue's 2-run double bumped the score to 6-0 and Madison Hill drove in a final Southside run with a single.
"We've just got to be more consistent," Beck said. "We've got to make them [opponents] do more of the damage themselves."
PRAIRIE GROVE -- On March 9 the Tigers dropped their season opener 8-2 to 7A Fayetteville, but then on March 12 Prairie Grove got into the winning side of the ledger when they defeated the 5A classification's Harrison Goblins 8-3 in a rain-shortened affair.
Anna Kidd paced the Tigers' offense against the Bulldogs going 3 for 4 at the plate with one double. Ketzler and Rivera added the only two other hits for the Tigers. Pitcher Laney Layman was tagged with the loss despite giving up just 2 earned runs on 7 hits, while striking out 11 Bulldog batters.
"We have a lot of young players and we are still trying to work in the girls that just came over from basketball, so we kind of had the typical first game jitters," Beck said.
Despite rainy and cold conditions the Tigers offense came out white-hot against the Goblins, scoring six runs in the bottom of the first inning. Kidd began the big inning by stroking a double to the wall in centerfield which scored Scott. After Ketzler drew a base-on-balls, Terry dropped a Texas Leaguer over the head of the Goblins third baseman, which loaded the bases. Kidd then crossed the dish following a Savannah Stearman walk making the score 2-0. Rivera's sacrifice fly to left field allowed Ketzler to score and then Ali Edgar came up with the big hit when she plated two Tiger runners with a frozen rope triple to left field. Edgar scored the sixth run of the inning just a few pitches later when she slid safely head first into home plate after a pitch got past the Harrison catcher.
The lead grew to 7-0 in the second frame when Terry blasted an RBI triple into left field, scoring Mckenzie Brown, who was pinch-running for Ketzler. Rivera scored on a wild pitch in the third inning, making the score 8-0.
Layman (1-1) was un-hittable for three innings, striking out five Goblins in the process. However, the rain-slick softball proved too hard to control in the fourth stanza. After giving up three runs in the inning on a pair of hits and three consecutive base-on-balls, Layman handed over the wet orb to Scott, who coaxed an inning-ending ground ball.
"We came out swinging the bat really well," said Beck. "We had a good approach, good focus and our minds were in the right place. I thought a lot of girls came through today, particularly in the bottom of the order."
Terry's two-hit performance, with an RBI and one run scored paced the offense, with Kidd, Rivera and Katharine McConnell each adding a hit to the Tiger total.
Sports on 03/25/2015