One of the most difficult weeks in program history for the Siloam Springs softball team ended with the Lady Panthers celebrating a victory.
Siloam Springs snapped a four-game losing streak Friday with a 3-2 nonconference win against Berryville at La-Z-Boy Sports Park.
The win couldn't have come at a better time for the Lady Panthers, who not only lost two 7A/6A-West Conference games this week but also lost two seniors. Four-year starters and Class 6A All-State standouts Haley Hunt and Abi Sislo quit the team after Wednesday's 13-2 loss to Springdale Har-Ber.
The Lady Panthers then lost to Rogers 13-3 on Thursday before rebounding with the win against Berryville, which plays in the 4A-1 Conference.
"First of all I want to say how proud of these young ladies I am," said first-year Siloam Springs softball coach Scott Wright after the win Friday. "They have weathered a storm this week. We've gone through a little adversity, but they have responded well. I really feel good about what our girls did today. I feel good about how they responded."
The Lady Panthers never trailed against the Bobcats. Siloam Springs took a 2-0 lead in the first inning and went ahead 3-1 in the sixth after scoring an insurance run, which would end up being the difference in the ballgame.
In the first, junior third baseman Leslie Perry walked and came around to score on a long single by sophomore first baseman Shayla Simmons to take a 1-0 lead. Ally Bunch singled and Heidi Fernandez reached on a bunt single. Simmons scored to make it 2-0 when the Lady Bobcats committed a throwing error on Fernandez's hit.
Freshman Crissa Spry made the 2-0 lead stand up for the first five innings, consistently wiggling out of trouble as Berryville left nine runners on base over the first five innings. They would end up leaving 12 on base for the entire game.
"Yeah, that's sort of been our motto all year," Berryville coach Eric Henderson said. "We've had kids on every game all year. We haven't gotten that big hit when need it. They kept battling. You can't fault that. They battled to the end. That's what we preach every day."
The Lady Bobcats (6-8) did scratch a run across in the sixth when Morgan Pando led off the inning with a walk and came around to score on a Spry error.
Spry made up for her miscue in the bottom of the sixth as the Lady Panthers added an insurance run to go up 3-1.
Fernandez led off the inning with another bunt single and pinch hitter Summer Vaughn walked. Larissa Tillery sacrificed both runners up a base, and Spry drove in Fernandez with a bloop single over second base.
Berryville would score another run in the seventh aided by two more Siloam Springs errors, but Spry got a groundball out to end the game and give the Lady Panthers the win.
Spry (4-3) only allowed three Berryville hits. She struck out three batters and walked five.
"I really felt like Crissa pitched a fantastic game," Wright said. "She found her spots tonight. (Thursday) night and tonight she's probably done the best job she's done as far as hitting her spots. She did it really well today."
Siloam Springs finished with eight hits and left eight runners on base. The Lady Panthers committed six errors defensively.
"It wasn't pretty, but sometimes you win when it's not pretty," Wright said. "What I like it how they found a way to do it when things weren't going our way."
The Lady Panthers return to 7A/6A-West Conference action when they host Fayetteville on Monday at 5 p.m. in a makeup of a rainout from last Tuesday. Siloam Springs then hosts Van Buren on Tuesday and Rogers Heritage on Thursday in conference games.
NOTES: The Lady Panthers hope to get senior center fielder Haley Littlejohn back in a couple of weeks. Littlejohn has been nursing a knee injury. "We're hoping she'll be back in the next couple of weeks," Wright said. "What we've been told is two weeks, but it could be faster depending on the healing process." Littlejohn and Sierra Ferguson are the team's two remaining seniors. ... Henderson said the two teams will try and play one another next season at Berryville. "To us this is a good game stepping up to 6A and playing a good team," Henderson said. "We don't mind traveling and coming over here and playing. We're trying to play as many games as we can. We've got a young team and we're looking toward the future. This is good for us."
Siloam Springs 3, Berryville 2
Berryville 000 001 1 -- 2 3 1
Siloam Springs 200 001 X -- 3 8 6
Hill and Harp; Spry and Curtis. W-Spry, 4-3. L-Hill, 6-8. HR-None.
Rogers 13
Siloam Springs 3
ROGERS -- Rogers used a 14-hit attack and a solid pitching performance by Haylee Zimmerman to defeat Siloam Springs 13-3 in a 7A/6A-West Conference softball game Thursday at Veterans Park.
Rogers got hits from eight of the nine batters in the order and ended the game on the 10-run rule with six runs in the fifth.
Rogers also took advantage of six Siloam Springs errors, including three in the fifth as the Lady Mounties scored all six runs with two outs.
"We hit the ball decently, but Siloam also made some errors and that made us look a little better," Rogers coach Mike Harper said. "It was nice to see us finish the game there in the last inning."
Siloam Springs grabbed a quick 2-0 lead in the top of the first.
Siloam Springs' Ally Bunch hit a two-run single in the first inning after a Rogers error and a single by Leslie Perry, but Zimmerman settled down the rest of the way to get the win. After Bunch gave Siloam a 2-0 lead, Zimmerman retired nine of the next 10 batters as Rogers took control.
The Lady Mounties responded with seven unanswered runs to take control.
Rogers High 13, Siloam Springs 3
Siloam Springs 200 01 -- 3 6 6
Rogers 214 06 -- 13 14 1
Zimmerman and Kinney; Spry and Curtis. W-Zimmerman. L--Spry. HRs -- None.
Springdale Har-Ber 13
Siloam Springs 2
Haley Hunt had three of Siloam Springs' six hits in a 13-2 loss to Springdale Har-Ber on Tuesday at La-Z-Boy Sports Park. Morgan Curtis had two RBIs for the Lady Panthers.
Hunt (4-7) took the loss in the circle.
Sports on 04/13/2014