Lady Blackhawks take down Lady Panthers

Pea Ridge got tripped up in the semifinals of the Siloam Springs Lady Panther Invitational on Saturday, but the Lady Blackhawks ended a long day of softball on a winning note.

Pea Ridge answered an early Siloam Springs scoring threat with four runs in the bottom of the first inning, and that was enough to carry the Lady Blackhawks to a 6-2 victory in four innings in the third-place game of the tournament, which wrapped up Saturday afternoon at La-Z-Boy Park.

Pea Ridge, which played all three of its tournament games on Saturday, finished the tournament 2-1 overall.

The Lady Blackhawks postponed their first-round game with Hackett, originally scheduled on March 10, to Saturday because of bad weather and because their boys basketball team played in the Class 4A State Finals that same weekend.

So the Lady Blackhawks and Lady Hornets played at 8:30 a.m. Saturday with Pea Ridge winning handily 14-2.

That set up a semifinal game with Fayetteville, and the Lady Bulldogs upset Pea Ridge 4-3 in four innings. All tournament games were played with a 70-minute time limit.

The loss to Fayetteville sent the Lady Blackhawks to the third-place game against Siloam Springs, which had lost 7-6 in eight innings to eventual tournament champion Gentry earlier in the afternoon.

"Coming into the weekend, playing in a late season tournament, our two goals, and the girls know this, were to obviously win the tournament -- we're not just showing up to play -- and keep improving for postseason," said Pea Ridge coach Josh Reynolds. "I feel like the way we played game one and game three, we were able to do that."

Pea Ridge starting pitcher Dominique Burwell, who pitched in game one against Hackett, surrendered a pair of early runs to Siloam Springs, but threw two scoreless innings to close out the 6-2 victory.

"Dominque threw early this morning in game one, and we asked her to come back and throw in game three for us," Reynolds said. "She had a long day, but she did very well. She attacked the strike zone. Made them put the ball in play, and we made the routine plays behind her."

The Lady Panthers got on the board in the top of the first when Kenlie Noel doubled and came around to score on a Pea Ridge error to take a 1-0 lead.

The Lady Blackhawks answered with four in the bottom of the first.

Hollyn Davis walked and Whatley doubled, followed back-to-back walks by Quinley Roses and Alli Whatley.

That forced Siloam Springs to switch pitchers as freshman Rachel Mann gave way to senior Crissa Spry, who threw all eight innings in the previous game against Gentry.

Brittany Harmon drove in a run with a groundout to short, and Halley Laster smacked a two-run single up the middle to score two runs.

Spry got out of the inning with the Lady Panthers down 4-1.

Siloam Springs pulled a run back in the top of the second. Maranda Guntharp walked and Sydney Smith and Danielle Boyster hit back to back singles to load the bases. Mann then hit a single up the middle to score Guntharp to make it 4-2.

The Lady Panthers had the bases loaded and nobody out with the top of their order coming up, but Spry popped out, Noel reached on a fielder's choice with an out being recorded at the plate, and Hannah Evans struck out to end the inning.

"Pea Ridge is as good as almost anybody in our league," Siloam Springs head coach Scott Wright said. "We had the bases loaded there and only scored one run. Had we gotten a couple more runs and had a big hit there, we were really only one big hit away from being toe-to-toe with them. Even 6-2, that's not a big-time loss. We just missed a couple of opportunities on offense that may have made a difference for us."

Pea Ridge answered that run with two runs in the bottom of the second. Bailey Johnson opened the inning with a single, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on an RBI single by Davis.

Davis later came around to score on a wild pitch to make it 6-2.

Pea Ridge improved to 20-3 overall with the win over the Lady Panthers, while Siloam Springs dropped to 3-14 overall.

"I thought overall we played a lot better today," Wright said. "I thought there were some really good things that we did out there today. I thought we showed a lot of improvement in some areas. We've just got to make sure we stay consistent with that. Obviously we just need to keep getting better, learn to handle those pressure moments. The more you get in those, the better you get at them and get used to it. We've got some young ones out there that are getting better, and we're starting to see some progress."

Pea Ridge 6, Siloam Springs 2

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Burwell and Whatley; Mann, Spry (1) and Smith, Alfaro (1). W - Burwell. L - Mann. HR - None.

Gentry 7, Siloam Springs 6

Siloam Springs missed its chances to put away Gentry in the winner's bracket semifinals against Gentry.

The Lady Panthers had the winning run at third base with one out in the bottom of the seventh and couldn't score.

The game went to the top of the eighth inning with the international tiebreaker rule in effect for the second straight inning.

Gentry started the inning with a runner at second base, and the Lady Panthers were able to throw her out trying to steal third to open the inning with an out. But the next six Gentry batters all reached base via walk, hit or dropped strikeout, and the Lady Pioneers scored five runs in the eighth inning to go up 7-2.

Siloam Springs answered with a rally of its own in the bottom of the eighth, scoring four runs and bringing the winning run to the plate, but Sydney Smith flew out to center field for the final out and a 7-6 win for the Lady Pioneers.

Gentry went on to defeat Fayetteville 5-1 in the championship game to earn the tournament victory.

The loss to Gentry erased one of the better pitching performances of the year for Siloam Springs senior Crissa Spry, who carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning.

"I tip my hat to Crissa and how she pitched in that (Gentry) game," Scott Wright said. "She was outstanding. She pitched about as well as I've ever seen her pitch."

The Lady Panthers took a 1-0 lead in the second when Smith singled and scored on an RBI double by Danielle Boyster.

Gentry took advantage of a passed ball strikeout and two Lady Panthers errors in the third to tie the game 1-1.

Neither team scored the next three innings as the time limit expired with the game still tied 1-1. Because the time limit expired, the tiebreaker rule went into effect in the top of the seventh inning, and Gentry took a 2-1 lead when a Siloam Springs error cost the Lady Panthers a chance to get out of the inning still knotted 1-1.

Trailing 2-1, Aislyn Burchette's RBI single scored Hannah Evans to tie the game 2-2 in the bottom of the seventh, and Maranda Guntharp doubled to set up second and third with one out. But Gentry pitcher Alyssa Kelton retired the next two batters and the game went to the eighth.

Lali Estrada reached on a walk with one out in the eighth for Gentry, stole second base and Brooke Boston followed with a single. An error on Siloam Springs allowed both runners to score. Billi Taylor reached on a fielder's choice and Kelton singled before Taylor Hull reached on a wild pitch on a strikeout. Alexis Droddy drove in two runners with an RBI double to make it 7-2.

The Lady Panthers made it interesting in the bottom of the eighth. Rachel Mann started the inning at second base via the tiebreaker rule, but Spry popped out and Noel grounded out for two quick outs.

Evans walked and Alfaro and Burchette reached on back-to-back errors. Guntharp then laced a two-run single to bring the winning run to the plate in Smith, who flew out to center.

"I thought we had some other bright spots in that game," Wright said. "We had some good hits. We had a lot of great things that happened in that game. We just didn't finish the game. We just didn't finish it off. Softball's kind of a funny game sometimes, and that happens. But the main thing we've got to keep doing is getting better, and that's our focus."

Gentry 7, Siloam Springs 6

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Kelton and Hull; Spry and Alfaro. W - Kelton. L - Spry. HR - None.