ROGERS -- Solid pitching and timely hitting was a winning combination for Rogers High.
Lady Mounties pitcher Maddie Massanelli scattered four hits and struckout six and Rogers used 13 hits to defeat Rogers Heritage, 7-1 in a 7A-West Conference softball game Tuesday at Veterans Park.
7A-West Conference
Prep Softball
Rogers High 7, Rogers Heritage 1
Heritage^001^000^0^—^1^4^2
Rogers^203^200^x^—^7^13^1
Pollock, Donahoe (4) and Enos; Massanelli and Kinney. W-Massanelli, 8-1. L-Pollock. SV-None. HRs-Heritage, Enos (1).
The win keeps Rogers (17-4, 9-0 7A-West) atop the league standings and the Lady Mounties now have a two game lead and hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the third-place Lady War Eagles (13-5, 6-3).
"This was a big win because it still gives us a chance to win conference, and get a No. 1 or No. 2 seed, which is one of our goals," said Lady Mounties coach Mike Harper.
Massanelli (8-1) went the distance to move to 4-0 in conference games. Massanelli didn't walk a batter and Heritage's only hit was a solo home run by Alexa Enos. Massanelli has a 1.30 ERA on the year.
"Maddie pitched the ball well," Harper said. "She moved the ball inside and out. She had good velocity, and we need her to have that."
Seven different Rogers batters had at least one hit and six of the Lady Mounties' seven runs scored with two outs. Allyn Hensley and Haylee Zimmerman had three hits each while Callie King and Ashlyn Lang had two hits apiece.
Rogers now has a team batting average of .337.
"Timely hits, too," said Harper. "A lot of different people have contributed to our team this year. We are not relying on just two, or three people. It's up-and-down the lineup, and we played well today."
Centerfielder Taylor Erickson robbed Heritage of two hits and Harper said that is nothing new for the senior.
"As the season has gone on, Taylor has become more aggressive and a leader," Harper said. "She is going after every ball and she made two outstanding catches."
Enos' home run cut the Rogers lead to 2-1 in the top of the third but the Lady Mounties responded with three runs in the bottom of the inning for a 5-1 lead. Lang did most of the damage with a two-out, two run double. Enos had two of Heritage's four hits.
"We had just one run and you can't win too many games with just one run," said Heritage coach Tiffany Taylor. "We just didn't have many hits."
Sports on 04/22/2015