Fayetteville enters the home stretch of the regular season with an opportunity to advance to postseason play.

That wasn't possible last year, when Fayetteville finished 1-17 in the first season for Sue Carpenter as head coach. Carpenter has seen progress in her second team, which is 5-18 overall and 3-8 in 6A-West Conference action.

"I'm extremely pleased with our progress," Carpenter said. "We have incredible buy-in and they're really starting to believe they can, and should, win. I think the losses hurt more than they used to and that's good. It should hurt. Bottom line, they care. They believe and for that I am grateful."

Fayetteville's remaining schedule includes games against teams the Lady Bulldogs must beat to earn the sixth and final playoff spot for the state tournament. The Lady Bulldogs play at Rogers Heritage Tuesday before returning home to face Springdale Har-Ber on Thursday. Fayetteville will then end the regular season against Van Buren in a makeup game May 6.

"There's no denying these upcoming games are important," Carpenter said. "One at a time, that's our thought process. We try to get them to focus on winning each inning. (If) we do that, we win the game. We control our own destiny and that's a great place to be."