State tournaments
Little Rock Catholic’s Jed Straessle (above) heads the ball during the Rockets’ loss to Bentonville West on Thursday at the Class 6A boys soccer state tournament. High school state tournaments began Thursday for boys and girls soccer, baseball and softball.
CABOT — The nerves didn’t show for Conway’s Katlyn Erickson for much of the afternoon.
Pitching in her first state playoff game, the Lady Wampus Cat junior held Springdale Har-Ber silent through six innings, scattering four hits.
But to clinch a spot in the Class 6A quarterfinals, the last three outs did not come without a little stress.
Fortunately for Erickson, her Conway teammates picked her with the bats. Katelyn Conrad drove in the game-winning run with a single in the bottom of the seventh to give Conway a 5-4 victory over Har-Ber.
“This is a big opportunity for [Erickson] after not getting to pitch last year,” Conway Coach Chata Hickey said. “But they had seen her four times, and any time you’re able to face a pitcher four times, it gives you a better chance at the plate.”
The Lady Wildcats made the most of that chance. After the first two batters in the top of the seventh reached on a single and a walk, Erickson retired the next two batters, bringing up leadoff hitter Brianna Crowley. The junior sent an RBI double to right, putting Har-Ber on the board.
Brooke Beyer added to the drama, launching a second consecutive double, this time bringing home two runs to pull the Wildcats within 4-3.
And for good measure, Jaxin Logue tied things up with a third double, turning a 4-0 Conway lead into a 4-4 tie in a matter of minutes.
“We’re a young team,” Har-Ber Coach Candi Bailey said. “We played Conway the first game of the year and just got beat really bad. … We just need to trust the process and keep building.”
Conway didn’t blink, though. Sydney Weiser reached on an error and then advanced to third on a wild pitch and a single, setting up Conrad’s game-winning hit.
“We weren’t nervous, we weren’t worried,” Hickey said after her team’s mindset after giving away its lead. “We were going to go in there and have a quality at-bat. That’s a mindset we have every time. … A win’s a win. You’ve got to take it when you can.”
FORT SMITH SOUTHSIDE 3, NORTH LITTLE ROCK 2
A pair of home runs did all the damage for the Lady Mavericks in the opening game of the day, with designated player Hana Dingman launching a tworun blast to dead center in the bottom of the first inning and Mel Hunter adding a home run in the fourth.
That gave Southside a lead it would never relinquish. Hunter went the distance for the Lady Mavs in the circle, scattering 8 hits over 7 innings of tworun ball while striking out 8.
The Lady Charging Wildcats had chances to get some early offense — they loaded the bases in the third and had runners on second and third with two outs in the 4th inning, but North Little Rock was unable to get on the board until Janiah Wilson lined a home run to left to lead off the sixth.
The Lady Cats added another run in the sixth but failed to get a runner past first the rest of the way. Southside will play Cabot today.
FORT SMITH NORTHSIDE 7, ROGERS HERITAGE 1
The Lady Bears overpowered their way to a comfortable victory, scoring three in the first and adding two more in the fourth with shortstop Danessa Teague causing plenty of trouble for the Lady War Eagles.
The Northside junior ignited her team’s opening rally with an RBI triple and then launched a two-run home run to left on her third plate appearance of the afternoon, pushing the Lady Bears’ advantage to 5-1 at that point.
Drama came just before the home half of the fourth, though, when Heritage catcher Paige Morrall was ejected by the home-plate umpire. That sparked an argument between the umpire and Coach Rodney Bowen, and after a minute of heated discussion, Bowen was tossed as well.
Cailin Massey was stellar in the circle for Northside, striking out 11 and allowing just one run on two hits while pitching a complete game. The Lady Bears will match up with Bentonville today.
BENTONVILLE WEST 9, LITTLE ROCK CENTRAL 2
Some early crooked numbers from the Lady Wolverines gave Bentonville West more than enough offense to cruise past the Lady Tigers. Left fielder Carlee Durham scored three runs while going 2-for-2 at the plate, including a two-run triple in the first inning.
The Lady Wolverines all but put away the game in the fourth when they scored four runs to stretch their advantage to 7-0 — Laynee Tapp and Caroline Wilhelm belted back-to-back home runs as eight girls came to the plate in the inning.
Although it took until the top of the seventh, the Lady Tigers eventually got the bats working, stringing together four consecutive singles. Central center fielder Jah’kaiya Woods finished the game 2-for-4 with an RBI.