PRAIRIE GROVE -- Prairie Grove has one senior and four juniors on its roster with the balance of its softball team comprised of seven sophomores and 11 freshmen.
That makes for some growing pains for the youthful Lady Tigers (1-6) coming out of spring break. Kinnison Hamilton, who alternates between the outfield and first base, is the only senior. Juniors Hattie Rose, Zoe Dormer and Morgan Gibbs also play in the outfield while classmate Briana Lowery mans the catcher spot but can also play third base.
Sophomore pitcher Calley Lowery gained a lot of experience in the 4A Foray hosted by Farmington the weekend going into spring break. Lowery pitched the Lady Tigers to a 20-3 win over Farmington's JV squad in the tournament.
"She got a lot of innings in. Her and Angelina Petersen have been splitting almost every game, but tournament time you need to use everybody," said Prairie Grove coach Dave Torres. "That was a plus then we got our little freshman girl [Petersen] out there to get an inning in so that was an experience. I'm sure we'll have to use her down the line."
Torres noted improvement in the batter's box which helped produce a season-high 20 runs.
"It's always nice to get a win. I think we made a good adjustment on hitting the ball and going the other way, which we've been trying to pull everything," Torres said.
Torres praised the pitching of both Lowery and Petersen, which he said went a long ways towards turning the tide after the Lady Tigers lost 7-1 to Springdale Har-Ber and 5-0 to rival Lincoln in the tournament.
"We've been playing pretty good defense the whole year so we got to keep doing that and the biggest thing for us was the pitchers stepping up and throwing better than we have been doing. If they can do that we'll have a much better chance," Torres said.
Beau Collins joined Torres and assistant Katy Chavis in an expansion of the Lady Tiger softball coaching staff this season. Torres said he's very fortunate to have both assistants in the dugout.
"Our district and our superintendent [Lance Campbell] has made a commitment to try and help us out in athletics both in coaching spots and facilities and it's going to make a difference. I'm really excited about that," Torres said.
Despite its youth and inexperience Prairie Grove's competed well. The Lady Tigers jumped out to a 1-0 lead against Class 6A Har-Ber and posted 4 shutout innings before eventually losing 7-1 in a full game.
"I like the way our girls compete. How they're very coachable. We've been in almost every game. There's been maybe one that we weren't and it's just going to take some time for them to jell but we're making progress," Torres said. "We're playing bigger schools to make us better. We just need to keep our confidence up and understand that's going to help us when we get to conference."