Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Mounties’ shut out FS Southside
ROGERS 9, FS SOUTHSIDE 0
FORT SMITH — The Rogers Mountaineers opened the 6A-West season much the way they finished last season.
Rogers received stellar pitching and plenty of offense on Monday in a 9-0 win against Fort Smith Southside at Forsgren Field in the conference opener for both clubs.
Defending Class 6A state champion Rogers (5-1, 1-0) hosts Southside ( 5-2, 0-1) today at 5 p. m. in the second game of the conference home- and- away series at Mountie Stadium.
On Monday, 6-foot junior left-hander Madden Dillard allowed two base runners in each of the first two innings but without allowing a run and then cruised through the final five innings for the complete-game victory.
“Madden got better as the game went on,” Rogers coach Matt Melson said. “Early on, he couldn’t find any of his off-speed stuff. The third inning on, he was able to find that and able to mix it up. They were squaring a lot of balls up the first couple of innings, and we were fortunate to get to those.”
Over the final five innings, Dillard retired 15 of 16 batters, only walking Ty Wiley to lead off the sixth inning. Dillard struck out five.
“It was fun coming out competing with my team,” Dillard said. “The defense played well with no errors. I had a little bit of trouble with some of my stuff, but I just went in there and tried to throw strikes. The two-seam was working here and there.”
He needed just 89 pitches in the win.
Offensively, Rogers scored in every inning except the sixth when the Mountaineers went down in order.
J.T. Melson led off the game with a double down the third- base line and scored on two errors for a quick 1-0 lead.
Noah Goodshield led off the second inning with a single, stole second, took third on a fly ball to right and scored on Cooper Johnson’s ground-ball out for a 2-0 lead.
Ty Frakes doubled home Eli Marcotte, who had singled, with two outs in the third inning.
Josh Lawring and Johnson scored in the fourth inning for a 5-0 cushion.
Rogers busted the game open in the fifth inning with three runs on just two hits, which were run-scoring singles by Johnson and Melson. Marcotte walked with the bases loaded to force home another run.
Kade Seldomridge added Rogers’ final run with a double to score Melson, who had singled, in the seventh.
“You look up there and we scored in all but one inning,” coach Melson said. “The consistency offensively was good to see. They’re a talented bunch over there, and we made their starter, who’s really good, we made him work. We played defense. It was a good all-around team win.”
Southside had its chances early to get to Dillard.
Zeb Allen was hit by a pitch to lead off the bottom of the first but was picked off. Braxton Waller followed with a single but Dillard escaped further damage with a strikeout and ground-ball out.
Luke Jackson singled with an out in the second inning, and Duncan Cravens walked but again Dillard pitched out of trouble with a strikeout and a fly ball.