ROGERS -- Ava Johnson said she knew that if her Rogers teammates kept hitting the ball hard, good things would eventually happen.
That's exactly what happened for the Lady Mounties in their final two innings at bat.
After being no-hit for four innings and hitting several line drives right at Bentonville West's defense, Rogers broke through in the fifth and sixth innings and defeated the Lady Wolverines 4-0 in a 6A-West Conference softball game at the Lady Mounties Softball Complex.
Johnson threw a four-hit shutout with eight strikeouts for Rogers (17-1, 9-1), handcuffing West until the Lady Mounties got on the board.
"It was a hard win," Johnson said. "We definitely had to prove ourselves with our bats. In the beginning, we were just making hard contact, and it was going right to them. So it was definitely one of those wins where we had to push through and just trust the bats. They weren't giving us anything easy."
Bentonville West's Mabry Van Es pitched four perfect innings to start the game, but she ran into trouble and a little bad luck in the fifth.
Talyn Jackson laced a single up the middle to open the inning. Lauryn Heinle followed with a sharp ground ball that took a high hop off the facemask of West first baseman Maddie Axe.
Mak Fithlan then hit a ground ball to third base. West third baseman Laney Van Es fielded the ball and turned to third but no one was covering the base, loading the bases with no outs.
Kadence Janney ripped an RBI single up the middle to score courtesy runner Izzi Anderson. Ryleigh Johnson followed with an RBI single up the middle for a 2-0 lead, scoring pinch runner Tillie Garcia.
"It was a tough start to the game," Rogers Coach Tori Stafford said. "We were hitting rockets, and it was just right to people. We just kept saying, you've got to keep at it. Sometimes the game pays you back and sometimes it doesn't, but the best thing we can do is just keep doing what we do, and they trusted in the process and believed in each other. They kept passing the bat and eventually the ball fell, and we were able to score some runs."
Ashton Hulett ripped a line drive to first, which Axe snagged and stepped on first for a double play. Ava Johnson walked to reload the bases, but Mabry Van Es got a force play at second to get out of the inning with just two runs scored.
The Lady Mounties added two more runs in the sixth. Dahana Tuomala singled to open the inning and scored on Jackson's RBI double. Anderson, running again for Jackson, moved to third and scored on consecutive wild pitches for a 4-0 lead.
Ava Johnson worked a perfect seventh inning to wrap up the victory. Stafford said she did a good job of keeping West (12-9, 6-4) off balance at the plate.
"They were really aggressive," Stafford said. "She kept changing speeds. She kept changing eye levels, and that's what we have to do to be able to compete in this conference. Really good pitching and just making sure we're backing her up. We made a lot of good plays on defense as well. So, yeah, big job with Ava tonight. She's doing really well for us."
Jackson and Ryleigh Johnson each finished with two hits for Rogers, which finished with six hits -- all in the last two innings.
West Coach Anthony Cantrell said he was proud of his team's effort. Eva Riffe had two hits for West.
"That was a great ballgame," Cantrell said. "We pitched it great. We had a couple of hiccups there in the fifth inning and a good team's going to make you pay on that, and they did. But we got out of it with two runs scored. You know they had the bases loaded no outs and only scored two runs. I was proud of my girls today. They fought."