Softball falls to Russellville
Lady Panthers to host tournament
Pitching has been a struggle for Siloam Springs’ softball team this season, and a muddy circle on Monday afternoon didn’t help matters.
Russellville took advantage of nine walks and three hit-batters, and the Lady Cyclones added 11 hits in an 18-3 rout of Siloam Springs in a 5A/6A District 1 game at La-Z-Boy Softball Complex.
“One thing the girls do is they fight hard,” said Siloam Springs softball head coach Scott Wright. “They play hard for us. We’ve worked hard. We’re just really inexperienced on the mound. We’re learning. Over the last 14 months,
we’ve probably never worked harder at developing pitchers, but it’s taking them some time to develop. We know that they’ll get there. It’s just they’re not quite there yet. But they’re working hard, and I can’t be disappointed with the effort that they give us.”
It was the first home game of the season for the Lady Panthers (0-8, 0-5), who played their first seven games of the year on the road.
“It was good to get a home game and not have to travel one-and-a-half to two hours on the road,” Wright said. “Like I said I thought our girls played hard and they gave us everything they’ve got.”
Siloam Springs pitcher Kenlie Noel got two of the first three batters out in the first inning before experiencing some footing issues, which led to some control problems.
Russellville wound up scoring seven runs in the inning, including an RBI double from M.K. Duffield, a two-run single from Rebecca Betancur and an RBI single by Meredith Duffield.
Siloam Springs got a run back in the bottom of the first. Noel reached on an infield hit, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Sydney Smith and reached third after a single by Danielle Boyster.
Noel scored after a successful double steal with Ailyah Hilbish, who pinch ran for Boyster, to make it 7-1.
Russellville added two runs in the second and nine more in the third to take an 18-1 lead.
The Lady Panthers got two runs back in the third. Tyler King walked and stole second base. King scored on an RBI double by Noel, who went 2-for-2. Noel came around to score on Boyster’s RBI groundout to make it 18-3.
The Lady Panthers had two runners on with a chance to extend the game but were unable to score and fell via the 15-run 3-inning sportsmanship rule.
Betancur and M.K. Duffield each led Russellville (4-5, 1-4) with four RBIs, while Katlin Betancur and Emily Hipps each had two RBIs.
The Lady Panthers are scheduled to host Farmington on Thursday in a 5A/6A District 1 game, and the annual Lady Panther Invitational is set for Friday and Saturday, weather permitting, at La-Z-Boy Park.
“I really don’t know what to think about the weather this coming weekend,” Wright said. “The forecast isn’t great but we’ll see what happens.”
Van Buren and Gentry are supposed to open the tournament on Friday afternoon at 4:30 p.m., followed by Fayetteville against Cedarville. The tournament continues at 8:30 a.m. Saturday with Siloam Springs playing Little Rock McClellan and Fort Smith Northside playing Rose Bud. The tournament is a three-game guarantee with the championship game set for 2:30 p.m.
“We’ve got a lot of teams that we don’t know a lot about them because we don’t ever see them,” Wright said. “But it will be good to get some brand new fresh teams in here. We have a good tournament field. We’ll see how it goes.”