BENTONVILLE -- About the only thing Luke Cornelison failed to do Wednesday afternoon was finish what he started.
Springdale Har-Ber's junior right-hander held Bentonville to three hits over 5 2/3 innings, and his RBI triple led to a seven-run outburst in the fourth inning as the Wildcats completed a 6A-West Conference series sweep with a 9-1 victory over the Tigers at the Tiger Athletic Complex.
Cornelison ran out of pitches before he could get the complete game, with his 110th and final pitch resulting in his eighth strikeout. Aiden Elliott then took over in relief and retired all four batters he faced as Har-Ber (11-3, 5-3) extended its winning streak to 10 games.
"That's two really, really sharp outings for Luke," Wildcats Coach Dustin Helmkamp said. "He's been doing really well on the mound his last two times -- multiple pitches at any time. He's just calmed things for us and kept us at bay and kept putting up zeroes. It just relaxed us.
"And any time you have those kind of innings, it's huge. I just thought our guys had good ABs. They didn't get out of the zone and attacked some good pitches. They found holes, and I thought our hitters did a great job with their approach."
Har-Ber staked Cornelison to an early lead thanks to a trio of two-out singles in the first inning, with Kaleb Ceola driving in Ross Felder. Felder then walked in the third and scored on a Bentonville error with two outs to make it 2-0.
Cornelison aided his cause when he followed Luke Altom's walk with his triple into the left-center field gap to start the big fourth inning.
Braden Sprague quickly followed with a single to drive in Nash Jeffus, who was Cornelison's courtesy runner, and made it 4-0. Brady Smith followed a Felder single with a sacrifice fly to score Sprague, then Ceola added an RBI double before Jackson Lanning capped the outburst with a bases-clearing double.
"I was just sitting on fastball, and he threw me one down and in," Cornelison said. "It was a good pitch to hit, then I was getting on my horse there. I just started it, but we finished. The people behind me just kept hitting."
Cornelison held Bentonville (7-7, 4-4) hitless until the bottom of the fourth when Daxton Horton followed Brooks Hasenclever's leadoff walk with a bloop single into left. Cooper Cothran then belted a single to right and drove in Hasenclever, but the Tigers hurt themselves from further scoring by having two baserunners thrown out.
"I was just throwing fastballs in the zone most of the time," Cornelison said. "Curveballs were getting hit in the infield, and the infielders were out there making plays. They really helped me out there."