CABOT — There’s an age-old debate about the end of any season. If you’re going to get beat, if you’re going to be denied a championship, is it more painless if you get blown out rather than losing a heartbreaker?
Neither is pleasant, of course. It’s a matter of degrees.
The close ones always leaving you wondering “what if. . . “ but you wind up feeling like you took the other team to the hilt. The lopsided losses, on the other hand, leave little doubt. There’s little second guessing but it’s still a bit more humbling.
For the Bryant Lady Hornets on Saturday, the challenge was a Bentonville Lady Tigers team that had rarely been matched during the season. Champions of the 6A-West Conference, the Lady Tigers pushed out to a 9-0 lead on the Lady Hornets in the first two innings on the way to a 13-3 win in the semifinals of the Class 6A State Tournament.
The loss ended the Lady Hornets’ splendid 25-7 season, a game away from playing for a State championship.
“Three runs doesn’t really reflect the fact that we hit the ball hard throughout,” said Lady Hornets head coach Lisa Dreher.
“Defensively, this is the best team I’ve ever coached,” she asserted. “It’s held us in a lot of games and forced other teams to leave runners on. Having four defensive errors was very uncharacteristic. That combined with the three home runs was too much.
“Bentonville was just better than us on this day and, in State, that’s all it takes,” the coach concluded. “They are a good team and are always tough.”
Bentonvillle will play upstart Conway, the three seed from the 6A-Central Conference, for the State title on Friday. Bryant beat Conway in both of their regular-season games, but the Lady Wampus Cats upset host Cabot, champion of the 6A-Central, in the other semifinal on Saturday to advance.
Senior Alissa Suarez had two of Bryant’s seven hits — all singles. Bentonville’s Emily Perry had three hits including a double and a three-run homer. Kenzie Derryberry had three hits including a two-run jack. McKenzie Vaughn homered as well.
Vaughn, the Lady Tigers’ pitcher, scattered seven hits and surrendered single runs to the Lady Hornets in the third, fourth and fifth innings.
Vaughn’s two-run blast came after Bentonville scored on an error in the first, part of a three-run inning.
Emma Bonvillain was Bryant’s first baserunner as she singled with two out in the top of the second.
Perry’s bomb made it 6-0 in the bottom of the second. A trio of walks loaded the bases then two scored on an error. A single made it 9-0.
A Bentonville miscue allowed Caitlyn LaCerra to reach base with one out in the top of the third. She stole second, took third on Suarez’ groundout then scored when Macy Hoskins singled to left.
The Lady Tigers trumped that with two more runs in the home third. A pair of Bryant errors played into the uprising.
Regan Dillon led off the top of the fourth with a single. She advanced to second when, with one out, Bonvillain’s grounder to short was booted. Christine Mefford grounded into a force at second then Dillon scored on a passed ball to make it 11-2.
Perry doubled with two out in the bottom of the fourth then Derryberry homered to cap Bentonville’s scoring.
In the top of the fifth, LaCerra and Suarez led off with singles. With one out, Abby Gentry grounded a base hit up the middle to bring in LaCerra.
The game ended when Dillon flew out to center and, a throw into second resulted in a doubleplay as the umpires ruled that Suarez had failed to tag up to advance to third.
The Lady Hornets figure to be back next season, though they lose four valuable seniors in Suarez, Bella Herring, Marissa Bracey and Paola Arana.
