By Zack O'Neal
UCA sportswriting
Pitching woes and a lack of loaded bases opportunities led to a 12-10 loss Tuesday for Conway's Lady Cats against the Van Buren Lady Pointers at the Conway High School Softball Complex.
The Lady Cats gave up an early lead with seven runs by walks during the first inning. The Lady Pointers also managed to bat around.
But Conway didn't give up.
“We had an opportunity to quit, but we competed and that’s all the coach asked for,” CHS coach Chad Longing said. “I’m tickled to death at how they came back.”
Van Buren coach Andy Williams said: “Those are the innings we usually have on defense. We were not on to the pitcher, get a couple of errors, they flare to balls in, hit a ground ball off the handle and then the next thing you know, we never hit the ball home. We could’ve broken the windows with any ball we hit. But they fell in, they were placed in the right spot and we ended up with seven runs.”
Conway right fielder Hannah Cooper was substituted in to pitch in the middle of the first inning, striking out her first batter. She pitched for the remainder of the game.
“I was proud. I did the best I could,” Cooper said. “A lot of it had to do with the defense. They were really good and backed me up really well.”
The offense even started off rough for the Lady Cats as they went two innings without scoring a run.
The Lady Pointers managed to score two runs in the second by stealing home on wild pitches.
The Lady Cats scored their first run as left fielder Maddie Shaw got an RBI bunt. They managed to get the hits they needed to load the bases, setting up a scoring opportunity for their clean-up batter. This was the first of the few times where the Lady Cats loaded the bases.
“My 4-hole hitter comes up with bases loaded and gets a big strikeout,” CHS coach Chad Longing said. “So no, I don’t think we took advantage. We even had to chop the order up at bases loaded sometimes.”
After the strikeout, Cooper hit a line drive to right field for an RBI. Following that run, center fielder Jordan Yandell hit a sacrifice fly and batted in a run, pulling Conway within 9-3.
After the Lady Cats only allowed one run in the fourth inning, they rallied for five runs to bring the game back in their favor.
Longing said they had a chance to shut it down, after the 7-0 early deficit, could’ve gotten run-ruled and gone to the house, but instead they chose to fight all the way back for a chance to win. Longing said he was very proud of the way they competed.
The fourth inning started with catcher Emily Gould getting walked. Gould was forced out at second after third baseman Mallory Brooks hit to shortstop.
There was an error on the Lady Pointers near center field as they had three defenders closing in on a pop fly hit by short stop Deonna Howard. Following the error, two walks gave the Lady Cats a run and loaded bases, setting up another opportunity for designated player Cheyenne Kuhn. This time at bat, Kuhn got a hit flying to the fence, batting in two runs. Copper followed up Kuhn with a hit past third to drive in another run.
“It put a lot of pressure on me because if I pitch it like right down the middle and they score, that’s my fault,” Van Buren pitcher Hunter Ruttan said. “I feel my team should have my back so I don’t worry too much.”
The Lady Cats walked to score another run in the inning.
“They hit the ball hard on us all night long,” Williams said, “But our players fell in and we got some opportunistic walks; we capitalized on a couple of line drives, but they scored enough runs right before then.”
After the Lady Cats scored one more run in the fifth inning, they were able to hold the Lady Pointers from increasing their from 10-9 until the seventh inning.
“We had another opportunity and didn’t take advantage of it at first," Longing said. “I don’t know if we threw a strike in the first inning. Couldn’t get Paige Liles out of the first and then we had to go with our senior, Hannah Cooper. I cannot say enough about how she competed on the mound.”
Things got started in the last inning for the Lady Pointers with a walk and a stolen base followed by a sacrifice fly to advance second baseman Kinsey Williams another base.
After a Kelcie Atwell’s hit that batted in a run, Ashlee Deffenbaugh substituted in as pinch runner. The Lady Pointers got three back-to-back hits to drive in two more runs.
In answer, the Lady Cats managed to score one run, but unfortunately for them, the one run was not enough.
Cooper said a few things that the team could work on would be to get its offense going in the beginning so the team can build off it, fix little mistakes and work on technique and being more consistent.
Both teams recorded seven hits. For the Lady Cats, Brooks was 3-for-4; Cooper was 2-for-4.
The Lady Pointers struck out five to CHS's two. Cooper got both strikeouts for the Lady Cats.
Ruttan said she could have improved on her mechanics as she tried to dive off the mound. She said there were a few times where she was struggling and she snapped the ball during her release.
With a 4-13 record, 2-4 in the 7A Central conference, the Lady Cats head to Russellville on Thursday.
Lady Pointers 702 100 3 — 12 7 2
Lady Cats 003 510 0 — 10 7 3
Deere, Ruttan (5) and Tipton; Liles, Cooper (1) and Gould.
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