Familiar foes battle for 5A-South supremacy

By Kyle Sutherland 

It would only make sense that two of Class 5A’s most storied programs will once again square off to decide the South conference championship Friday night. 

No. 2 Benton will travel to Sheridan with hopes of putting the finishing touches on an undefeated conference regular season after beating the Lady ‘Jackets 6-5 on Tuesday in extra innings. 

Coming into Tuesday, neither team had lost a conference game in three years. However, they didn't play each other in a league tilt the past two seasons because Benton was in the 5A-Central Conference. There were planned non-conference contests in that span, but those fell through. The most recent meeting prior to Tuesday was in April of 2021 in a regular season tournament that Benton won big 15-0.

Sheridan remained in the conference title race with a 14-0 victory over Hot Springs Lakeside on Thursday night and will need to beat the Lady Panthers by at least two runs to win the 5A-South.

Since 2016, one of these two programs has claimed a state championship.Sheridan completed possibly the most dominant run of any team in state history when they won four consecutive titles from 2016-19. 

On the flip side, Benton is the current two-time defending state champion and finished the 2022 season as the No. 3-ranked team in the country. In all, the two squads have combined for ten state championships - five for Sheridan (1999, 2016-19) and five for Benton (2004-05, 2014, 2021-22).

Sheridan (19-7, 14-1) jumped on Benton (23-4, 14-0) in Tuesday’s contest starting with a solo home run by Hanna Gilbert in the second inning, followed by a three run inning in the third, then the speedy Skylar Sterritt scored from third base at the top of the fourth on an error to make it 5-0 Lady ‘Jackets.

The Lady Panthers exploded in the bottom of the fourth with four runs of their own and tied it up at five in the fifth inning as Addison Davis was able to score from third after Cam Culclager lined out across the field to second base.

Seven innings was not enough. 

Fast forward to the bottom of the ninth with Mallory Crosby on third base, Dakota Hobson singled on a bunt that advanced Crosby 60 feet across home plate to give Benton the walk-off victory.

“As soon as the game was over, we were really disappointed and felt like we let it off the hook,” Sheridan head coach Scott Hoffman said. “I felt like for much of the game we outplayed Benton. We outhit them 8-to-2.

“We made some errors at some really bad times. When you go extra innings you have got to be able to put down bunts, move the runners and we failed to do that.

Benton head coach Heidi Cox has recently talked about the resiliency of her past teams to be able to either rally from behind or hold on to a close lead until the end. She feels that as the season has moved forward that the 2023 squad has shown it can be done as they did on Tuesday.

“We need these kinds of games,” Cox said. “Sheridan did a phenomenal job hitting the ball. Alyssa (Houston) had to place the ball different than she is used to and her defense had to work behind her. At the plate we had to do some things differently and just for them to execute that I was so proud of them.”

Benton has taken its rightful place at the top of the 5A softball mountain over the past two seasons, but it was Sheridan who was there for many years prior to that.

Sheridan won the first fastpitch state championship in 1999 and has always fielded a quality program, but the teams that won four consecutive titles is something that has only been done by two other schools - Taylor and Foreman.

Tamara Howard - Tamara Strawn at the time - was the head coach for all four of those state title runs.

Howard followed Eddie Paul Woodall, who had great success with the Lady ‘Jackets, which gave her mixed feelings when she first took over.

“At first I was excited but it was also intimidating because he was such an awesome coach,” Howard said.

It took Howard hardly any time to realize that she was in a great position because of the solid ground that had already been set by Woodall prior to her arrival.

“There was not anything broken about the program,” Howard said. “The foundation was set, they had just gone to the state championship (2014) and got runner-up.”

Sheridan had immediate success under Howard as they returned back to the state finals in 2015, but fell 3-0 to Greenwood.

For the next four seasons Sheridan hoisted the trophy at the end of May, however the hopes of earning a ring for the thumb was cut short when the 2020 season was canceled early due to COVID-19.

Howard still ponders the heartache her and the team felt, especially with what they had coming back.

“I guarantee you we would have been five in a row because we had four Division I players,” Strawn said. “We were stacked, it was unbelievable.

“It is still sad to look back and think what could have been.”

Post COVID, Benton has reigned supreme highlighted by the back-to-back undefeated runs.

This year’s Lady Panthers squad still has senior Stanford signee Alyssa Houston, but did graduate the majority of their starters from 2022 which has been felt.

Cross county rival Bryant ended Benton’s 67-game win streak in March, but despite the Lady Panthers experiencing adversity they may not be accustomed to, Cox is pleased with the way they have gone about their business.

“For them to sit back, relax, have fun and enjoy the moment especially right there through the end,” Cox said. “I really think they are pushing through for us because it is May and everyone is tired.”

With Sheridan being a familiar foe to Cox, who has coached at Benton since 2012, she mentioned the competition throughout the years made both teams better.

“They had been on a roll and Tamara had a group similar to what I feel like we have had through the past two years,” Cox said. “It was fun to play them and the senior class that we had last year was the first to beat Sheridan, which was the first time we had split the conference championship.”

Hoffman took over the Sheridan program after Howard stepped down following the 2021 season coming over from Batesville, his alma mater. He was asked during his interview about the pressures of taking over a program and living up to four recent state titles in a row.

“You don’t,” Hoffman said. “That does not just happen. All of those kids (who won titles) are gone, but the expectation is still there. We had to get the kids to come and buy into the program and they have. They have done everything we have asked.

“Going to state for Sheridan is not a goal - it is the expectation. Winning in the state tournament and advancing to play for a state championship is the goal.”

Hoffman led the Lady Jackets to the 5A semifinals last year and feels that through the ups and downs his squad has faced this season that they could be turning the corner at the right time.

“The last two nights something clicked and we looked like we got our swagger back,” Hoffman said following last week’s wins over Lake Hamilton and Lakeside.

At worst, Sheridan will take the 5A-South No. 2 seed into the state tournament. Regardless of how Friday’s game goes, Hoffman was given an extra boost of confidence following a team huddle moments after Tuesday’s walk-off loss.

“The first thing I asked the kids after the game was if they believed we can play for a state championship, because I think we can,” he said. “Moral victories are obviously not what we are after, but if anything it showed my kids that we can compete at the highest level.”