Tigers swept; drop to No. 6 seed
Posted on Wednesday, May 7, 2008
SPRINGDALE - Gordon Miller drove in 5 runs with a pair of runs the Springdale Har-Ber Wildcats completed a conference baseball sweep of the Bentonville Tigers here Tuesday, holding on for a 10-6 victory in Game 2.
Har-Ber clinched the 7 A West second-place bye into this week's Class 7 A State Tournament, beating the Tigers 10-7 in Game 1 in a game suspended on April 2.
The two losses send the Tigers (13-16, 6-8 ) into Friday's 6: 30 p.m. first-round tournament game at Burns Park in North Little Rock against 7 A-Central No. 3 Conway (19-10, 9-5 ) as the No. 6 seed.
The losses also assured Fort Smith Southside the No. 3 seed, Rogers No. 4 and Van Buren No. 5.
The winner of Bentonville's game plays Har-Ber on Saturday.
Miller, who now has seven home runs, homered to right field with two on in the first inning and to center field with one on in the fourth. His first-inning blast was part of a five-run inning. He also doubled in the third and singled in the sixth.
The first five Har-Ber batters scored off of losing pitcher Justin Mize, who was relieved by Scotty Joyner.
The five-run hole was too deep for the Tigers, who have now lost six in a row.
"It's tough to dig out of a hole against a quality club like Har-Ber," Bentonville coach Todd Abbott said. "You spot them five and it's going to be tough regardless how you spotted them."
After that, the Tigers went toe-to-toe with the Wildcats, pulling to within 9-7 in the fourth inning on RBI singles from Eric Ragsdale and Dan Beahm. Erin McGee scored on a wild pitch.
"I thought we played well, " Abbott said. "Justin had a rough outing on the mound. Scotty came in and did a phenomenal job. We didn't know how many (innings ) we'd get out of Scotty. He did great."
Joyner lasted through the sixth when he was relieved by Buster Gean.
Jacob Crayne (1-1 ) started for Har-Ber (19-7, 10-4 ). Three others relieved and combined to strike out 12 Tigers.
Andrew Thames' two-RBI single in the first inning put the Wildcats up 5-0.
Adam Seal's two-RBI triple to right pulled the Tigers to within 5-2 in the third inning. Derrick Lamp added an RBI single in the sixth. Game 1 Wildcats 10, Tigers 7 Game 1 resumed in the fifth inning with the Tigers trailing 5-4. They instantly tied it before giving it back and then some.
Gean was on first when the game was called for weather on April 2. He scored on a single by Martin Tabler.
Corey Ford answered for the Wildcats with a triple scoring two runs and Miller had an RBI single. Miller also had an RBI double in the sixth.
Erin McGee and Tabler had RBI singles for the Tigers in the sixth.
Bentonville left the bases loaded in its final two at-bats and left two on in the fifth.
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