Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Bentonville powers past Bentonville West
CENTERTON — When Bentonville packed its bags for the crosstown showdown with Bentonville West, the Lady Tigers made sure to include their bats. And they used them with authority.
Bentonville shortstop Kenzie Derryberry smacked a three-run homer and left fielder Alleyna Rushing delivered a two-run triple to lead the Lady Tigers to an 11-2 win Tuesday in a battle of 6A-West’s top teams.
“We made adjustments as the game went on,” said Bentonville coach Kent Early. “I thought Cierra (Cravens, West’s starting pitcher) did a good job early on. Our kids, we had some opportunities to break the game open and they did.”
Bentonville (19-1, 7-1 6A-West) remained a halfgame behind first-place Rogers High, a 4-0 winner Tuesday against crosstown Rogers Heritage. The Lady Tigers have played one more game than Rogers after playing Springdale High twice last week.
On Tuesday, Bentonville grabbed an early 2-0 lead as pitcher McKenzie Vaughan led off the second inning with a double off the base of the fence in left field. Hallie Robison, who was a courtesy runner for Vaughan, scored the game’s first run on a fielder’s choice and Tallulah Pascucci, who walked, also scored on a wild pitch.
West sliced the deficit in half on one swing in the bottom of the second as catcher Ryen Rassi belted a 2-2 offering over the fence in center for a solo home run.
The 2-1 score stood until the fifth when the Lady Tigers put up another crooked number thanks to Vaughan. Rushing opened the inning with a single and Sara Watson followed with a two-out single. Vaughan ripped a 1-0 pitch into left to drive in two runs and a 4-1 lead.
“We just have to go out and execute,” said Vaughan, who earned the win in the circle in addition to going 3-for-4 at the plate with an intentional walk. “Right now, we’re just going out and playing free.”
West (14-5, 5-2) closed the deficit to 4-2 in the bottom of the fifth as Caroline Wilhelm singled to open the inning and scored on a ground ball.
In the top of the sixth, Bentonville blew the game open with four runs. Trista Peterson led off the inning with a walk and Ryann Sanders singled. Kadence Stafford singled to make it 5-2. With two outs and two runners on, Derryberry crushed a threerun homer to left to extend the Lady Tigers’ lead to 8-2.
Bentonville tacked on two more runs in the seventh when Rushing delivered a shot down the right-field line with two runners on. Both runners scored and Rushing easily raced around the bags for a stand-up triple.’
“Today we had runners at second and third a couple of times and couldn’t punch one through, so those were huge,” said Early. “That hit by Kenzie helped break it open a little bit.”
Sanders and Rushing each had two hits for Bentonville. In the circle, Vaughan went the distance and struck out five with just one walk.
For West, Wilhelm was 2-for-3.
Bentonville will return to action on the road Thursday at Springdale Har-Ber, and West will be at home against Fayetteville.