Lady Lions win Siloam tournament

Coaches Taos Jones, right, and Randall Hunt, with the Lady Lions who won the Siloam Springs softball tournament pose for a photo. Team members are Kate Stidham, Kendra Greenhaw, Megan Ward, Natasha Ward, Desirae Fisher, Kyndra Meeker, Adriana Olvera, Melanie Bunch, Charmayne Shelley, Samantha Pruitt, Ashleigh Horn, Tanner Bryson, Taylor West, Shyanne Nichols, Nicole Springer, Breanna Sullivan and Destaney Wishon.
Coaches Taos Jones, right, and Randall Hunt, with the Lady Lions who won the Siloam Springs softball tournament pose for a photo. Team members are Kate Stidham, Kendra Greenhaw, Megan Ward, Natasha Ward, Desirae Fisher, Kyndra Meeker, Adriana Olvera, Melanie Bunch, Charmayne Shelley, Samantha Pruitt, Ashleigh Horn, Tanner Bryson, Taylor West, Shyanne Nichols, Nicole Springer, Breanna Sullivan and Destaney Wishon.

— Gravette’s Lady Lions softball team “brought home all the bacon” after winning the Siloam Springs tournament held earlier this month.

Coach Taos Jones’ Lady Lions toppled Cedarville 5-2 in the opening game held at Panther Field. The teams found themselves in a 2-2 deadlock at the end of the seventh inning, but Gravette came on with three big runs to ice the game.

A heartbreaking 1-3 loss to Fort Smith Northside in the second game proved to be the impetus for the Lions to come back strong in the next three games as they walloped Siloam Springs9-4 in game three. Gravette led from the opening inning and put together three 3-run bursts to take the game.

Revenge time against Fort Smith Northside saw back to back 11-2 wins over the Sebastian County girls, as the Lady Lions put the first game away with a 3-run third inning and a 5-run blast in the shortened contest in game 4. Not to be outdone, Gravette took the final game 11-2, with three runs in the first three innings and two in the fourth to end the runaway.

Gravette’s ladies committed only two errors during the five-game outing. Pitcher Shyanne Nichols took two of the wins for Gravette, and Kate Stidham also had two victories.

Win at Pea Ridge

The Lady Lions continued their winning ways Thursday when they traveled to Pea Ridge and came home with a 10-3 victory over the Lady Blackhawks. Coach Jones put the game in perspective with this account of the action:

“It was the best bit of hitting I’ve seen out of my kids. I can’t even sum it up and do justice to all of the girls but I’ll try. Shyanne Nichols was 4 of 4 with four doubles; Kyndra Meeker was 3 for 4; freshmen Megan Ward and Samantha Pruitt were both 2 for 3.

“We did an amazing job at the plate and that, coupled with some pretty fantastic pitching, helped us big. Kate Stidham got the win with 14 strike outs, two walks and only allowing one earned run.”

Sports, Pages 9 on 03/23/2011