7A SOFTBALL STATE TOURNAMENT : Russellville shows no quit
Posted on Saturday, May 10, 2008
RUSSELLVILLE — Russellville Coach Harley Sisson got what he expected.
Trailing by four runs after four innings, Russellville’s offense came to life and pulled out a 6-4 victory over the Fort Smith Northside Lady Grizzlies on Friday in the first round of the Class 7 A state tournament at Arkansas Tech.
“We’ve been in that situation several times this season,” Sisson said. “We talked about it before the game. ‘Never quit. Keep running the race, and run it to win.’” Russellville (10-10 ) scored three runs in the top of the fifth inning to cut Northside’s lead to 4-3, and it stayed that way until Russellville came to bat in the top of the seventh.
Senior Laura Brown led off the inning with a single and advanced to second on a groundout. Cora Johnson’s single gave Russellville runners at first and third. Senior shortstop Sarah Reasoner’s single scored Brown, and Johnson scored after Northside senior pitcher Candice Culver’s throw to third bounced off the fence to give Russellville 5-4 lead.
Reasoner scored the final run on sophomore Cyia Oliver’s sacrifice fly to center field.
“Hats off to Russellville,” Northside Coach Scott Thompson said. “They don’t stop. They believe on every pitch that they’re going to win the game.” Northside (11-15 ) scored one run in the first inning on freshman center fielder Dakayla Clayton’s single and three in the fourth on senior catcher Cassie Peer’s RBI double and center fielder Jessica Waggoner’s tworun double.
Russellville senior pitcher Jessica Mabry faced 10 batters and allowed two hits in the final three innings.
“[Mabry ] dug in there and kept fighting,” Sisson said. “She did a good job of staying in there when she got hit a couple of times. Her change-up started working good, and that made a big difference.” “I thought Mabry did a good job,” Thompson said. “She had good control of her change-up, good control of her fastball. She made us chase the high pitch. She had a good game plan.” Russellville advanced to play North Little Rock in today’s quarterfinals. North Little Rock (27-3 ) is the top seed from the 7 A-Central and was 2-0 in the regular season against Russellville.
“Anybody can beat anybody on a given day in the playoffs,” Sisson said. “We’re going to go after them as hard as we can.
“ We have to play a nearperfect game, but you never know what’s going to happen.” Russellville.................... 000 030 3 — 6 6 2 FS Northside................... 010 300 0 — 4 7 2 Mabry and Gee; Culver and Peer. W — Mabry. L — Culver. CONWAY 7, FORT SMITH SOUTHSIDE 2 Second baseman Kristen Shock had 2 doubles, 2 RBI and scored 2 runs to help lead Conway to victory over Fort Smith Southside.
Tia Houston had two hits and scored two runs for Conway.
Jessica Stiles and Destiny Gordon scored for Southside in the fourth inning. CABOT 3, ROGERS 1 Cabot scored three runs in the second inning, and that held up for a victory over Rogers.
Cabot scored on RBI singles by Tara Boyd and Becca Bakalekos and a sacrifice fly by Jordan Reed. VAN BUREN 10, MOUNT ST. MARY 0 Kelsey Williams pitched a six-hit shutout to help lead Van Buren to victory over Mount St. Mary.
Keri Arnold and Chelsea Knight each had two RBI for Van Buren.
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