Har-Ber blanks Rogers, 7-0

Springdale Har-Ber's offense finally warmed up just like the temperature on Monday afternoon. The Wildcats have struggled to score runs, particularly in 6A-West Conference play this season, but they banged out 14 hits and blanked Rogers High 7-0 at Veterans Park. Lead-off man Hunter Wood went 3-for-3, hit a solo home run and scored three times to pace the Har-Ber offense. He said the Wildcats were more aggressive at the plate. "It's just good to see us swing it," Wood said. "Usually we take until we get two strikes or something. We finally started swinging at our pitches early in the zone and early in the count. Obviously, it showed that it did good things for us." Har-Ber coach Ron Bradley said his team has now put up back-to-back games with 14 hits. "It's pretty typical of the weather early," Bradley said. "The weather was bad and just in the last week we got up in the 60s and 70s and the bats come alive. You can just tell the difference in the baseball off the bat. "It was good to see back-to-back and the first time we swung it in a conference game all year." Har-Ber (19-6, 6-5 6A-West) broke open a tight game with a four-run top of the fifth. Wood led off with a double and scored on Clay Burtrum's RBI-single. Blake Adams followed with a two-run home run off Rogers starter Matthew Watson. That was more than enough for the Wildcats with Adams on the mound. The hard-throwing right-hander allowed just three hits in pitching the complete game. He struck out nine, walked two and only threw 91 pitches. Bradley said it was nice to give Adams some runs to work with since he's been under added pressure in many of his starts because of a struggling offense. "You keep adding some runs, it just makes him tougher," Bradley said. "He's had to pitch a lot of one-run games and he hasn't been able to just relax and pitch. We were also able to keep his pitch count down, which was huge especially this time of year. He's kinda been pushed the last three weeks. Hopefully, it just rejuvenates him for next week. We've just got to keep moving forward. We can't control what anybody else does. We've just got to do what we can do and build momentum to the state tournament." Five different Har-Ber players had two hits each. Adams drove in three runs and Charlie Acuff drove in two. Tanner Strickland accounted for two of Rogers' three hits with a pair of doubles. The Mounties (14-9, 7-4) remained only a game behind first-place Bentonville West in the 6A-West Conference standings. Springdale Har-Ber 7, Rogers High 0 Har-Ber^101^040^1^--^7^14^0 Rogers^000^000^0^--^0^3^0 Adams and Ross; M. Watson, J. Watson (5) and Seldomridge. W-Adams. L-M. Watson. HRs-Har-Ber, Adams, Wood.

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Rogers High School Athletics

HAR-BER BLANKS ROGERS, 7-0

PAUL BOYD

Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette | 4/23/2019

PHOTO CREDIT: Charlie Kaijo