A six-run, second inning helped the Lady Wolves spoil Prairie Grove's shot at the 4A-1 title and No. 1 seed at the 4A-1 District Tournament, which begins Thursday at Gentry.
Instead, the Lady Tigers (16-13, 3-3 in 4A-1 play) dropped to the fifth seed while Lincoln (13-6, 4-2) secured the No. 3 seed after the Lady Wolves held on for a 7-3 victory on April 21.
With the victory, Lincoln receives a bye into the second round of the district tournament and will play Friday at 6:30 p.m. while Prairie Grove will open the tournament against Gravette on Thursday at 4 p.m.
"We haven't won the conference here in 13 years, and I really felt like we had a chance," said Prairie Grove coach Dustin Beck. "Lincoln came out and played real well and came out hitting the ball, so hats off to them. And it was tough for us to make up enough runs after that [second inning) to come back but we did score some runs to get back in it.
"We had chances, but made our adjustments a little too late. I would have liked to have played one more inning. But we'll learn from it and get better. "
Lincoln senior pitcher Ashtyn Rothrock struck out 13 while allowing five hits to pick up the victory.
"She's pitching really well," said Lincoln coach Beau Collins. "Most of her pitches are working well for her and she's hitting her spots. I can't be any happier with the way she's pitching the past few weeks."
Lexington Dobbs got the Lady Wolves on the board with a solo homer in the first inning.
"That's a good way to start it, I just wish there were a couple of more [runners] on," Collins said. "But we've been hitting the ball pretty well the past few weeks and I keep telling the girls if we keep putting the ball in play and hitting it hard, good things are going to happen."
In the second, Tristan Cunningham, Madison Reed and Ayden Massey each drove in two runs to account for the Lady Wolves' scoring. Kylie Scott and Mackenzie Terry each drove in a run for Prairie Grove. The third run came whe Anna Kidd caught the Lady Wolves defense sleeping and was able to steal home after Terry's RBI single in the sixth.
Sports on 04/27/2016