Early tips cap to 4 seniors
Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008
BENTONVILLE - Immediately following his team's loss in the Class 7 A state semifinals, Bentonville softball coach Kent Early gave the credit to four seniors for getting t h e team that far.
Senior starters Tandie Bailey (SS ), Emily Dodd (LF ), Brittney O'Reilly (RF ) and Jackie Saumweber (2 B ) led the Lady Tigers during a record-setting year and a second straight trip to the semifinals.
"That's a good group," Early said. "They show up and they work every day and that's all you can ask for. They set the tone, they played hard and they did everything you asked of them. Just a bunch of good kids."
The Lady Tigers lost seven senior starters last year but bounced back with a school-record winning percentage and their best 7 A-West Conference record.
After 1-2 start in league play, Bentonville finished as runner-up with a 11-3 record.
They finished 23-4 (. 852 ) overall - the third straight 20-plus win season under Early.
Junior pitcher Faith Lund, an All-State selection last year, was the pitcher of record in all the games this year to move her career record to 44-11.
Lund hit 8 home runs this year - including a grand slam in Bentonville's state quarterfinal win against Conway - and is the career leader with 13.
The Lady Tigers broke their team home run record for the second straight year, blasting 11 this year.
Lund and four other underclassmen starters will return next year.
"Of course it helps having your starter in the circle again," Early said. "She'll get more valuable experience this summer."
Sophomore leadoff Meg McGuirt had a single-season record 21 steals and was one of the most consistent hitters.
The Lady Tigers finished the season red hot after that slow start.
"We came out flat against Fayetteville and it just carried over to Van Buren," Early said of the early meetings with those teams. "They came out and worked pretty hard after that."
The Lady Tigers won 20 of their last 22 games and had a 10-game win streak heading to the semifinals, where they lost 1-0 to North Little Rock.
Bentonville outscored its conference opponents 120-16 and had nine conference shutouts.
The offense stayed hot against Conway - scoring 15 runs on 15 hits in a 15-12, two-day ordeal - but struggled against the Lady Charging Wildcats.
NLR junior pitcher Jessica Sheldon struck out 14 batters in the two-hit shutout.
Sheldon also scored the winning run, scoring as the Lady Tigers tried to get another runner stealing second in the bottom of the sixth.
"It was a boneheaded play," Early said after the game. "I say boneheaded but had it worked out, it would have been tremendous because we would have cleared the bases. That's what (North Little Rock was ) trying to get us to do and we just couldn't do it."
Early said he was proud of his team for the way it battled in a tight game with North Little Rock.
"That's what I told the seniors (after the game ): ' Everything you did, you left it on the field. There was nothing you could have done better, '"Early said Monday. "We didn't get the breaks today. It's a hard one to swallow but we'll be right back in the weight room and be in the batting cages."
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