Heritage swinging big bats

Lady War Eagles coach Rodney Bowen and his staff have placed a big emphasis on scoring runs this season, and the result is paying off.

Heritage (12-9, 5-3 6A-West) belted three home runs and three doubles in Thursday’s

8-1 win at Springdale to start the second half of conference play on a positive note.

Sophomore Izzy Ulepich slugged two homers, giving the first baseman four homers on the year and increased her RBI total to

13. Emily Carpenter also went deep for her second homer of the season and boosting her RBI total to

16.

“We’ve placed a premium this year on our hitting,” said Bowen after Thursday’s game. “We spend more time on that than we do defensively. Our two-strike approach, we revamped that over the offseason and that has paid tremendous dividends for us.”

Ulepich said she has spent a lot of time on her own working on her approach at the plate, and has increased her strength in the weight room.

“I do tee work, I do softtoss, I go in and hit off a machine a couple of times a week,” Ulepich said. “We work on Sunday afternoons and have a BP and lift. I’ve definitely seen an improvement in the weight room.”

Heading into the final three weeks of the regular season, Heritage is in the mix for a high seed in the 6A state tournament. Currently the Lady War Eagles are sitting in the No. 4 spot in the 6A-West, one game behind Bentonville West. Heritage is scheduled to host Siloam Springs today before traveling to Springdale Har-Ber on Tuesday. Har-Ber is onegame behind Heritage in the standings. — Chip Souza