Prairie Grove controlled its own destiny: Simply defeat Lincoln to win the conference title and, perhaps more importantly, secure an automatic bid into the 4A North Regional, which the Lady Tigers are hosting next week.
But they were unable to rally back after the Lady Wolves put up six runs in the second inning of a 7-3 victory on April 21. That knocked Prairie Grove down to the No. 5 seed in the 4A-1 Conference Tournament, which begins today at Gentry.
PREP SOFTBALL
4A-1 District Tournament
at Gentry, April 27-30
Thursday
Game 1: No. 6 Gentry vs. No. 7 Huntsville, 2 p.m.
Game 2: No. 5 Prairie Grove vs. No. 4 Gravette, 4 p.m.
Game 3: No. 3 Lincoln vs. Game 1 winner, 6 p.m.
Friday
Game 4: No. 1 Berryville vs. Game 2 winner, 11 a.m.
Game 5: No. 2 Pea Ridge vs. Game 3 winner, 1 p.m.
Game 6: Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 4 p.m. (Championship)
*Top 4 teams advance to 4A North Regional at Prairie Grove, May 5-7
3A-1 West District Tournament
at Elkins, April 28-30
Thursday
Game 1: No. 3 Greenland vs. No. 6 Mansfield, 4 p.m.
Game 2: No. 4 Lavaca vs. No. 5 Cedarville, 6 p.m.
Friday
Game 3: No. 1 West Fork vs. Game 2 winner, 4 p.m.
Game 4: No. 2 Elkins vs. Game 1 winner, 6 p.m.
Saturday
Game 5: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner, noon (Championship)
*Top 4 teams advance to 3A West Regional at Atkins, May 5-7
"We haven't won the conference here in 13 years, and I really felt like we had a chance," said Prairie Grove coach Dustin Beck. "But it seems like we've played in a lot more big, important games than we have in the past few years and they've responded every time."
None are more important than today's game against Gravette (8-9, 4-2 4A-1) at 4 p.m. Prairie Grove (17-13, 3-3) blew a late lead in an 8-4 loss at Gravette on March 31, but bounced back to beat the Lady Lions 7-6 in a nonconference home game on April 9.
"It would have been great to be the No. 1 seed and get the bye to go into regionals," Beck said. "But I don't think there is any one team in our conference where you're like, 'Oh no, we've got to play them.' I think there are 5-6 teams in our conference that are capable of beating anybody -- It just depends on who shows up to play that day."
Top-seeded Berryville (17-9, 4-2) and No. 2 Pea Ridge (13-5, 4-2) already have punched their regional tickets, leaving the rest of the field vying for the final two spots.
No. 3 Lincoln (14-6, 4-2) plays at 6 p.m. today against the winner of No. 6 Gentry (9-13, 2-4) and No. 7 Huntsville (4-16, 1-5), which open the tourney at 2 p.m.
The Lady Wolves are led by senior pitcher Ashtyn Rothrock, who had 13 strikeouts in the win over Prairie Grove. They're as hot as any 4A-1 team and won the Lady Panther Invitational in Siloam Springs less than two weeks ago.
"We've been playing very good ball the past few weeks," said Lincoln coach Beua Collins. "Ashtyn has been pitching really well and we're capitalizing on that by putting the ball in play. I told the girls, 'If we keep hitting the ball hard, good things are going to happen.'"
3A-1 West Tournament
Top-seed West Fork (12-6, 7-1) and second-seed Elkins (15-6, 7-3) have secured bids to next week's 3A Region I Tournament at Atkins and get to watch while five other teams fight for the final two spots at the 3A-1 West Conference Tournament, which begins today at Elkins.
No. 3 Greenland (6-4, 8-11) opens against No. 6 Mansfield (3-11, 1-6) at 4 p.m., followed by No. 4 Lavaca (3-11, 2-4) against No. 5 Cedarville (6-9, 2-4) at 6 p.m.
The conference champion Lady Tigers will take on the Lavaca-Cedarville winner on Friday at 4 p.m. while the host Lady Elks get the Greenland-Mansfield winner at 6 p.m.
Sports on 04/28/2016