Rivals Play For Third Place

MARK HUMPHREY ENTERPRISE-LEADER/Prairie Grove coach Dustin Beck talks to the Lady Tigers softball team between innings. Prairie Grove defeated Berryville, 14-4, on Thursday to qualify for the 4A North Regional tournament this week at Dover.
MARK HUMPHREY ENTERPRISE-LEADER/Prairie Grove coach Dustin Beck talks to the Lady Tigers softball team between innings. Prairie Grove defeated Berryville, 14-4, on Thursday to qualify for the 4A North Regional tournament this week at Dover.

GRAVETTE -- Rivals, Lincoln and Prairie Grove, played for third place in the District 4A-1 softball tournament held at Gravette last week with the Lady Wolves taking an 11-1 win.

Lincoln scored 5 runs on 4 hits aided by 2 Prairie Grove errors in the top of the first inning. Tristan Cunningham reached on an error and Malorie Pershall did the same, which allowed leadoff hitter Hollie Webb to score. Lexington Dobbs singled to drive in a second run as did Kaitlyn Lankford. Jada Corbit's bunt scored a fourth run and Madison Jones' ground-out pushed across a fifth Lincoln run.

Prairie Grove scored in their half of the inning on Arianna Pickett's RBI single into center field, but that was all the offense the Lady Tigers could muster.

Lincoln got rolling again in the second. With the bases loaded, Dobbs hit her second RBI single of the contest with Lankford duplicating the effort. With one out, Jones hit into a fielder's choice. Prairie Grove got an out at second, but a run scored. Lincoln added a ninth run on a delayed steal to up their lead to 9-1. In the third, Cunningham's RBI single produced Lincoln's 10th run and they ended the game by a run-rule margin on Lankford's third RBI single when Prairie Grove couldn't answer in the bottom of the fifth.

Lincoln had 13 hits and no errors while the Lady Tigers were held to 4 hits and committed 4 errors.

"It was not a good day, things didn't go our way," said Prairie Grove coach Dustin Beck. "We didn't catch a whole lot of breaks and we hurt ourselves, but we are still where we want to be, we are playing in the Regional tournament."

Prairie Grove lost a semifinal by the same score in an 11-1 loss to Pea Ridge and had to turn around and play back-to-back games because of weather forecasts of heavy rain which caused the tournament to be completed in two days.

In the top of the first against Pea Ridge, Ali Edgar led off with a single. Katherine McConnell added a bunt-single and Kylie Scott drove in a run with a single, but they wouldn't score again.

Pea Ridge scored 7 runs in the bottom of the first, starting with three consecutive singles after a runner got on base when she was hit by a pitch. The Lady Blackhawks had 8 hits in the inning, and resumed their attack with a leadoff walk in the bottom of the third. An RBI triple and an error accounted for two more runs. The game ended with two more Pea Ridge runs in the fourth.

Prairie Grove's best game of the tournament was on Thursday when they banished Berryville from the postseason with a 14-4 victory over the Lady Bobcats. The Lady Tigers led 3-0 after the second before Berryville closed the gap to 3-2 in the top of the third inning. Edgar started a Prairie Grove rally by reaching on an error. She would eventually reach third and score on an error with Anna Kidd batting. Berryville again trimmed the lead to 1-run by scoring on a single in the top of the fifth. Prairie Grove answered with an 8-run deluge to put the game out of reach on their way to a 14-4 run-rule win to gain a berth in the 4A North Regional at Dover. They will play Pottsville at 3 p.m. Thursday.

Sports on 05/03/2017