VILONIA The Vilonia baseball team suffered two disappointing losses to Greenwood on Tuesday night.
The Bulldogs captured their first win of the doubleheader 7-5 and they took the nightcap 15-5.
Vilonia (6-5, 1-3) dropped the first game after a controversial call by an infield official, according to Vilonia coach Glenn McKay. Vilonia's Robert Nealy had the loss in the first and Dustin Smith recorded one in the second.
"We had runners in scoring positions. There was a hit and our guy ran to first base but the official called him out to end the game," McKay said. "It got pretty ugly after that. There was no way that our guy was out. He took a full step off of the bag, so we thought we were going to be able to continue the rally. It really agitated me the way it ended, especially when the young official said, 'Coach, I made the call and you ain't gone do nothing about it.'"
Despite the heartbreaking loss, the Eagles showed some positives against one of the favorites to win the 5A state title. Vilonia's most consistent hitter, Josh Wilkerson, went 3 for 4 in the first game against Tyler Wilson, who has already signed with the University of Arkansas to play quarterback. Power hitter Alex Crawford hit a home run against Wilson.
"Greenwood is a good team," McKay said. "That Wilson is high quality player. I know that they beat Conway in the Mountain Home tournament up there. So they're good. When they play Harrison next week, I believe that'll be a key match-up to see who'll get what seeding in the state tournament. Right now, Greenwood and Harrison are off to good conference starts."
The Eagles resume with conference play next Tuesday when Little Rock Christian comes to town. The game was originally scheduled for March 20th but due to heavy rains the field was saturated with water.
"Our defense has been steady," McKay said. "Our offense has been here and there, but we've scored enough runs to come away with some of those wins. Dustin Smith has really come through with a lot of hits. We have a few guys batting .333. So we've been fairly consistent."
Vilonia has two nonconference games sandwiched in between next week's meeting with Little Rock Christian and an April 11th doubleheader at Morrilton. The Eagles have Mountain View and Sheridan on the 5th and the 8th.
"We were disappointed with the losses to Greenwood because we wanted to get a split. That would have been nice," McKay said. "On the first game we clearly got robbed of having a chance in getting a victory. I didn't like that at all. I don't blame the coach (Craig Jones) because this is his first year as the head coach over there. He probably didn't even know the guys. I'm sure that the (school's administration) probably went out and hired those guys."
After the doubleheader with the Devil Dogs, the Eagles have six conference games left and three opponents, Harrison, Greenbrier and Alma. This stretch over the next month or so will go a long way in determining if Vilonia will earn a spot in the 5A state tournament.
