Bulldog reliever goes the distance in semifinal win over NLR
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008
NORTH LITTLE ROCK - An early call to its closer has Fayetteville on the cusp of a three-peat.
Junior Scott McFall took the ball sooner than he's accustomed to Monday at Burns Park's DeJanis Memorial Field. The Bulldogs' save leader (seven ) pitched seven innings of relief to spur Fayetteville past North Little Rock 6-4 in the semifinal game of the Class 7 A State Tournament.
Beating the Charging Wildcats on their home field advanced Fayetteville (28-3 ) to Baum Stadium for Friday's 7 A state title game. The Bulldogs are the two-time defending state champions. They'll play Washington County rival Springdale Har-Ber for the championship Friday at 2 p.m.
"Back to Fayetteville, it's a sweet deal," said Vance Arnold, Fayetteville coach, who's led the Bulldogs to three state titles since 2003. "I'm happy for the kids. They've played a lot of baseball games. They've been up all year long, so we just have to do it one more time."
Offensively, Fayetteville converted four North Little Rock errors into as many unearned runs. The Charging Wildcats' miscues allowed Fayetteville to score 6 runs on 4 hits. Franco Broyles'first-inning double plated Christian Allen and Adam Baker to tie the score at 2 runs apiece. Baker led off the game with a hard-hit double to center field.
A first-inning jam fostered doubt that Fayetteville could get back to Baum Stadium. Starting pitcher Spencer Hansen faced just three batters before making way for McFall. He loaded the bases with a hit batsman, a walk and a single, prompting Arnold to make the switch only 18 pitches into Hansen's outing.
"We made the quick decision just to keep it close and not dig too deep a hole," Arnold said. "You feel bad for Spencer. He's pitched better than that all year long, but I don't know why he couldn't throw a strike in the zone. We had to make a change and take the tempo of the game back for us."
McFall extricated Fayetteville from the bases-loaded, two-out tight spot with only a 2-run deficit in tow. After a second-inning single and hit batsman, North Little Rock didn't move a runner into scoring position until the seventh inning.
McFall allowed 2 earned runs on 3 hits and two walks, shrewdly mixing in an occasional fastball with a latebreaking curve and slider.
"It's the probably the longest we've thrown him," Arnold said. "He kept a lot of off-speed [pitches ] down and away and made them reach and brought the fastball in on their hands and did a great job."
McFall struck out eight of the 28 hitters he faced, tempting NLR with pitches that strayed from the strike zone.
"We swung at pitches out of the strike zone," said Randy Sandefur, North Little Rock coach. "It's hard not to swing at pitches like that out of the strike zone.
"The kid had good movement on the ball. He threw a slider for close to a strike. He threw his curveball. He snuck his fastball in there a couple of times. He did a great job."
Sandefur said Arnold's timely decision to insert McFall saved Fayetteville from incurring a more onerous first-inning deficit.
"I though they made a great move by getting [Hansen ] when they got him, because I think we were getting ready to dump a bunch of runs on them," Sandefur said. "We didn't make good enough adjustments at the plate. Taking nothing away from [McFall ], we swung at some pitches out of the zone."
North Little Rock mustered an ill-fated two-out rally in the seventh. McFall's lone walks of the game came in succession to North Little Rock's No. 1 and 2 hitters, setting the table for a 2-run Brian Bryles' double. With the tying run at the plate, McFall induced an infield pop-up that ended the game.
"He probably tensed up a little bit," Arnold said of McFall. "North Little Rock rose to the occasion and scored 2. It was a nail-biter over there even with two outs."
After their 4-run first, the Bulldogs tacked on runs in the fourth and fifth innings. McFall reached on a leadoff walk in the fourth and advance to second on Kellen Summers' double to left field. He crossed the plate with Fayetteville's fifth run when the ball eluded North Little Rock's left fielder.
Broyles scored Fayetteville's final run in the fifth, reaching on an error and scoring on Taylor Shaddy's sacrifice fly.
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