Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Williams’ four RBIs lead Har-Ber past Bentonville
SPRINGDALE HAR-BER 9, BENTONVILLE HIGH 4
BENTONVILLE — Springdale Har-Ber didn’t need a base hit to take an early lead Monday afternoon, then Bentonville was in trouble once the Wildcats’ bats came alive.
Lucas McCain belted a home run, and Jake Williams added three hits and drove in four runs as HarBer rolled to a 9-4 victory during the first of a two- game 7A-West Conference series at the Tiger Athletic Complex.
“You look up there and put three-spots on the board in a high school game, it gives you a chance to win,” Har-Ber coach Ron Bradley said. “Blake Adams didn’t have his best stuff, but he kept us in it. They helped us a little bit, and we took advantage of it.
“We also had some big hits with runners in scoring position. Lucas has had a good season and hit well out of that No. 5 spot. We just need to keep swinging it.”
Consecutive walks to Mac McCroskey and Blake Adams, followed by a wild pitch to move the runners, gave Williams his first chance to drive in a run, and his sacrifice fly drove McCroskey. Adams went to third on the play, then went home when the throw to third was wild and gave Har-Ber (14-2, 4-3) a 2-0 lead.
McCain followed that with a solo home run to make it a 3-0 game. Williams drove in another run in the second with a bloop single to right, and another error — the second of four Bentonville (7-6, 1-2) made in the game — helped extend Har-Ber’s lead to 6-0.
“Walks and errors are what we talked about after the game,” Tigers coach Todd Abbott said. “Austin Gottula settled down after a rough first two innings, where he walked several batters. It’s a much different game if we field the ball clean and throw more strikes early.”
Bentonville took advantage of Adams’ wildness in the second as the right-hander walked four, including a bases-loaded walk to Nathan Lyons to drive in the Tigers’ first run. A wild pitch moments allowed Bentonville to score another run, then Tyler Johnson belted a solo home run to left-center to start the fifth and pulled the Tigers within 6-3.
Har- Ber, however, picked up three more runs in the sixth to pull away. Another Bentonville error on a throw to the plate allowed Jackson Riley to score, then Williams delivered a double to deep right
field to drive in the Wildcats’ final two runs.
Adams pitched five innings and struck out 10, but he also issued six walks in a 108-pitch performance. Gottula allowed seven runs — six earned — on seven hits over 51/ 3 innings and took the loss. Har-Ber 330 003 0— 9 8 2 Bentonville 020 011 0— 4 5 4
Adams, Paschal (6) and Brown. Gottula, Kneeshaw (6) and Golden. W-Adams. L-Gottula. Sv-None. HR- Har-Ber-McCain; Bentonville-Johnson.
VAN BUREN 10, ROGERS HERITAGE 0
Trevor Johnson tossed a two-hitter and Ethan Rauser drove in three runs to lead the Pointers to the 7A-West Conference run-rule win Monday.
Van Buren (12-1, 3-0 7A-West) broke the game open with an eight-run, fourth inning. The Pointers scored 10 runs on just six hits but were aided by eight walks.
Johnson struck out six and did not walk a batter over five innings of work. Heritage dropped to 2-11, 0-5.