Heritage blasts Fayetteville for sweep

6A-WEST BASEBALL

ROGERS HERITAGE 11, FAYETTEVILLE 1

FAYETTEVILLE — Rogers Heritage broke out the big bats and the brooms at the same time Tuesday afternoon.

Quentin Edwards had a three-run home run, while Jack Hamm and Tyler Jouett each hit a two-run home run as the War Eagles completed a series sweep of Fayetteville with an 11-1 rout during 6A-West Conference action at Bulldog Field.

“It’s nice to see some of those young guys get some good swings,” Heritage coach Brian Walker said. “And Q, he’s our three-hole and a senior, so we expect to see big things out of him and he did it.”

The series sweep is the second in as many weeks for Heritage (16-10, 5-7) and something the War Eagles needed after they had to forfeit an earlier conference game against Fort Smith Southside because of a pitch count infraction. Had the forfeit not taken place, Heritage would be in sole possession of third place in the standings.

Instead, the War Eagles — who started the day in a wild four-way tie for fourth — is tied with Bentonville in fourth place and only one-half game behind third-place Southside.

“It’s my fault. I’m the boss,” Walker said of the forfeit. “The only thing we can do now is overcome it. We had a nice meeting and told the player they still control their own destiny, but they have to go out and win.

“This is a veteran group, a group that was supposed to have an unbelievable season and got punched in the mouth.

They’ve overcome it, and now we’re on the backside of it. We’re playing better baseball, and there’s still room for improvement.”

Edwards gave Heritage all the offense they needed in the top of the third. Braxton Crafton and Michael Johannsen started the inning with back-to-back walks, then Edwards belted his shot over the right-center field wall for an early 3-0 cushion.

The War Eagles, however, were far from finished. Stephen Mounce made it 4- 0 with a bases-loaded infield single off the pitcher’s glove, then Hamm scored on a wild pitch before Ethan Martin’s single drove in two more runs and gave Heritage a 7-0 lead.

“We swung the bats better,” said Walker, whose team was held to three hits in Monday’s 4-3 win over Fayetteville in 10 innings. “And it was against another good arm. We were able to take advantage of him and get to their bullpen, and we were able to get some good swings on the ball.

“Edwards’ home run got us going and that led to the seven-run inning. Then we were just stringing good bats together.”

Aden Almeida made the big lead stand despite some control problems as he walked eight batters. The righthander, however, allowed only four hits, and Fayetteville (1015, 4-8) scored only run came on a bases-loaded double play in the bottom of the third inning.

Heritage then put the game away in the sixth as Edwards singled and scored on Hamm’s home run to left-center field. Cole Richardson then singled before Jouett belted a towering blast into the trees beyond the left-field fence.