Baseball Recap: Mena Comes Up Short

Mena dropped to 6-11 on Tuesday, ending the team's three-game streak of wins on the road. They lost 11-1 to the Dardanelle Sand Lizards. Having soared to a lofty 16 runs in the game before, the Bearcats couldn't push the score so high this time.

Tripp Hensley

Hits

04/21/26 @ Dardanelle	3
04/10/26 vs Clarksville	3
04/07/26 vs Ozark	3
04/17/26 @ Waldron	2
03/31/26 vs Waldron	2
+ 6 more games

Mena saw four different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Tripp Hensley, who went a perfect 3-for-3 with one RBI. Hensley has become a key player for the Bearcats: the team is 2-1 when he posts at least three hits, but 4-10 otherwise.

As for Dardanelle, the victory was the 15th in a row for them, bringing their record up to 16-3. Those wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.2 runs on average over those games.

On Dardanelle's side, Jake Baxter tossed a big game, not allowing a single earned run while striking out six over five innings pitched. Baxter has been consistent: he hasn't given up more than one earned run in seven consecutive appearances.

At the plate, the team relied heavily on Jake Miller, who went a perfect 2-for-2 with one home run, three RBI, and two runs. Those three RBI gave him a new career-high. Alex Hernandez was another key player, getting on base in all four of his plate appearances with one stolen base, one run, and one RBI.

Coming up, Mena is taking a road trip to take on Ozark at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. The Hillbillies have struggled to contain batters this season (they've allowed 10.58 runs per game on average), something the Bearcats will no doubt try to take advantage of. As for Dardanelle, they will welcome Dover at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday.