Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Sanders strikes out 14 in complete-game victory
BENTONVILLE 5, ROGERS 0
ROGERS —Ryann Sanders painted the outside corner with her final pitch of the game with a fastball for strikeout number 14, then pumped her fist in celebration.
The Bentonville sophomore right-handed pitcher was dominant the entire way, allowing just three hits to lead the Lady Tigers to a 5-0 win against Rogers on Thursday in a battle of 6A-West Conference leaders.
“I was super psyched, but I was trying to go at my own pace the whole game,” said Sanders, who threw 112 pitches in the complete-game gem. “I tried not to let my mindset change from confidence to pressure. So I just tried to go at my pace and know that I have worked hard to get to this spot.”
Sanders was handed a 3-0 lead before she ever walked into the pitching circle. Bentonville (19-1, 12-0 6A-West) played both small-ball and big-ball in the top of the first inning. Kasey Wood was hit by a pitch to start the game and quickly stole second. Wood was bunted over to third on a sacrifice by Alleyna Rushing, and scored on Sara Watson’s RBI bunt single. With two outs, Trista Peterson delivered the big blow, crushing a home run over the right-center wall, her teamhigh eighth of the season, for a 3-0 lead.
“Any time you score first, you feel like you’ve created some momentum,” said Bentonville coach Kent Early. “And you have to keep that going. Then we stalled a little bit, but I was really proud of the kids because they made their adjustments and we made our adjustments and we were able to get a couple of runs late.”
Rogers starter Ella Beeman recovered from the shaky start and held Bentonville’s bats in check, working around several jams. The junior kept the Lady Mounties (16-4, 10-2) in the game with eight strikeouts and no walks.
Sanders was able to get out of a couple of jams, including the bottom of the sixth when Kylee Ward crushed a double off the base of the wall in left and moved to third on a wild pitch with two outs. Sanders got a 5-3 groundout when Wood made a backhanded stop at the bag and whipped a laser across the diamond for the third out.
Bentonville put the game away in the seventh when Wood belted an RBI triple off the wall in left and Watson, who was 2-for-3, blooped an RBI double down the rightfield line to make it 5-0.
Sanders mowed down the Lady Mounties in the seventh with two strikeouts and comebacker to the circle.