EL DORADO -- El Dorado upended Siloam Springs 8-2 on Thursday at the El Dorado Recreation Complex and advanced in the 6A-West Conference Softball Tournament. The victory qualified the Lady Wildcats for next week's 6A State Tournament.
"Coming into my first season, that's one of the goals you have to set early on," said El Dorado coach Chris Ezell. "We've got a little momentum now. We're playing a lot better than we did in the middle of the season."
6A-West Conference Softball Tournament
May 1, 4, 6
May 1 results
Game 1: No. 1 Greenwood 10, No. 8 Siloam Springs 0
Game 2: No. 4 Lake Hamilton 9, No. 5 El Dorado 4
Game 3: No. 2 Sheridan 10, No. 7 Texarkana 0
Game 4: No. 3 Benton 10, No. 6 Russellville 0
May 4 results
Game 5: El Dorado 8, Siloam Springs 2
Game 6: Texarkana at Russellville (n)
Game 7: Greenwood 6, Lake Hamilton 0
Game 8: Sheridan 9, Benton 1
May 6 results
Fifth-place: Russellville/Texarkana at El Dorado (n)
Third-place: Lake Hamilton at Benton (n)
Championship: Sheridan at Greenwood (n)
* All games played at highest seed school. Teams must win one of their first two games to advance to Class 6A State Tournament.
Larran Simmons was 2-for-3 with three RBI, including a massive solo home run in the sixth.
The Lady Wildcats pounded out 10 hits against Siloam Springs pitcher Crissa Spry, who took the loss. El Dorado scored four in the first and added four in the sixth.
"Everything was working, for the most part," said Ezell. "Our small ball played a big part early tonight. We were able to advance some runners with a lot of stolen bases, bunts and things like that. And then, they hit the ball hard most of the game. In the middle innings, we were hitting the ball hard. It was just right at people. When you don't have to move, it's 10 times easier to make a play then."
Kelsey Howard singled, stole second and scored on a single by Tristen Lewis for El Dorado's first run. Marissa Rice reached on a fielder's choice with Sydni Crisalli running for her. Crisalli stole second. Sally Walthall reached on an error and gave way to courtesy runner Ava Dunn. Crisalli went to third on the error before Dunn stole second. Both scored on a double by Simmons.
Despite some hard-hit outs, Spry kept El Dorado's bats quiet for the next five innings.
Siloam Springs chipped away with a run in the third. Spry walked and moved to second on Kenlie Noel's sacrifice bunt. With two outs, Yazmine Alfaro cued a blooper down the first base line that spun fair. She beat the throw to first for a RBI, infield hit.
The Lady Panthers cut the deficit to 4-2 with a run in the fifth. Spry walked and scored on a single by Hannah Evans.
El Dorado added four runs worth of insurance in the bottom of the sixth. Simmons, a sophomore, blasted a 3-2 fastball over the 220-feet mark in straight-away center field. It was her first home run of the season.
"She's hit quite a few in practice. I think it's been one of those things she's let it get to her throughout the season because she knew she had the power in her," said Ezell. "I was more impressed, it was a 3-2 pitch. She didn't take anything off her swing. Nobody was on base, leading off an inning, she got a hold to one."
The blast added some juice to the Lady Wildcats, who added three more runs in the inning. Grace Murry reached on an error, stole second and scored on Taylor Mayo's single. Allyson Silmon tripled into the corner in left field to plate Mayo. Silmon scored on a passed ball after a strikeout.
"It gave us a little more life," Ezell said of Simmons' homer. "That's what I was talking to the girls about after the ball game. In those middle innings, we were getting those outs, hitting it right at people. It almost got us down a little bit because they felt like they were getting good contact but they weren't getting on base as a result. But, toward the end of the game, it ended up finding the holes for us."
Rice was 3-4 for El Dorado. Howard had three stolen bases.
Grace Hargett was the winning pitcher, allowing six hits and three walks with nine strikeouts in seven innings.
"We had a lot of first-pitch strikes this game," said Ezell. "That's been one of our points of emphasis lately, trying to get ahead of the hitters. We did a lot better job on that. Grace did an outstanding job in the circle for us. The defense played well behind her."
In the bottom of the seventh, Spry stroked a one-out single before Noel ripped a line drive to centerfield. Murry backtracked before reaching up to snare the hot shot for the second out. Evans popped out to Silmon at short to end the game.
Spry struck out five for the Lady Panthers, whose season ended at 3-19 overall. Alfaro had two hits for Siloam Springs, which lost its final 12 games of the season.
El Dorado (14-9) returned to action Saturday in the fifth-place game. Results were not available at presstime.
Sports on 05/07/2017