NORTH LITTLE ROCK Just when Conway came off the mat with a flurry in an incredible, sixth-inning rally Friday night, Bentonville retaliated by pummeling the Wampus Cats' ace.
After a seemingly comfortable three-run lead suddenly vanished, the sixth-seeded Tigers produced three solid hits off the Wampus Cats' Zach Cats and tallied three runs in the top of the seventh to take a 7-4 victory over the third-seeded Wampus Cats in the first round of the 7A state baseball tournament at Burns Park.
Bentonville (14-16), which completed a four-game West Conference sweep over the Central in Friday's opening rounds of the tournament, advances to play Springdale Har-Ber today. The Wampus Cats (19-11) finished the season in a nosedive, losing five of their last six games, including their last three.
"We did not play well at the end of the year," said Conway coach Noel Boucher. "We played a lot of games in two weeks, and we gave great effort. We just never played with any consistency."
Conway erased a 4-1 deficit with three runs on a solid single, an infield hit and two errors on one ball by Bentonville in the bottom of the sixth. With Cates, who had relieved starter Zach Wyatt, Conway, which had the last at-bat, seemed to have dramatically shift the momentum.
Leadoff batter Matt Garza started the Bentonville seventh by lining a double in the gap in right center. He scored when Cates overthrew first on Derrick Lamp's bunt. Adam Seal laced a double in the gap in left center to score Lamp. After a passed ball, Martin Tabler lined a single to left to score Seal. The Tigers' Erin McGee, who scattered four hits and struck out six, only yielded a single by Ryan Valovich in the seventh before retiring the side on seven pitches.
"Basically, they threw the ball around a little and we scored some runs, then we threw the ball around a little and they score some runs," Boucher said. "Unfortunately, they had a couple of more guys on when we threw it around. And they got some solid hits in the seventh. That was surprising since we actually thought Cates matched up with their hitters better than Wyatt."
"We went into the seventh with the same thinking we've had all year put the ball in play and good things can happen," said Bentonville coach Todd Abbott.
Wyatt pitched five innings, yielding four hits and striking out two. But he struggled with his control throughout against the patient Bentonville batters, walking six (one intentionally and at least one batter each inning). He walked the leadoff batter in three of his five innings.
"I thought Zach Wyatt threw pretty well, but we hoped he could get deeper in the game," Boucher said. "But he threw a lot of pitches. He's a 100-pitch pitcher, and he got to 100 sooner than we wanted. I thought both our pitchers pitched pretty well, getting a lot of key popups, except we got a couple of balls up over the plate that they were able to do something with."
"We were able to work him (Wyatt) deep in the count, but we've been a pretty disciplined team at the plate all season," Abbott said.
McGee appearing cruising with a one-hitter and a 4-1 lead with the Wampus Cats staged a strange, two-out rally in the sixth. With one out, Cates, whose towering homer to deep center gave the Cats their only lead of the game in the first, singled sharply to center. Jeremy Atkins walked, then McGee struck out Jordan Cates. Josh Whitehurst put the bases-loaded when his roller went just beyond the outstretched glove of Tiger third baseman Buster Gean. Stephen Hicks' grounder to first went under Tabler's glove for one error, plating courtesy runner Aaron Boucher and Atkins. Bentonville right fielder Erik Ragsdale bobbled the ball then fired to second baseman Derrick Lamp on a relay as Whitehurst was rounding second. Lamp overthrew third on the relay, allowing Whitehurst to score the tying run.
Bentonville scored in the fourth after McGee led off with a double down the third-base line. Conway right fielder Landon McClain appeared to get his team out of the inning when he gunned down McGee trying to advance to third on Tabler's flyout. Ragsdale tied the game by ripping the ball over the left-field fence.
The Tigers scored three runs in a fifth-inning rally that began with a leadoff walk to ninth-place hitter Kyle Hartman. With two out, Seal blooped a single to left center, then the Cats walked Gean, the cleanup hitter, intentionally to load the bases.
McGee then helped himself with the best at-bat of the game. With two strikes, McGee fouled a pitch back of the grandstand, then fouled a high fly to deep right that just eluded McClain's dive in foul territory. He then punched a single up the middle, just past Whitehurs's lunge at short, to drive home two runs.
"We actually got the pitch we wanted there and he (McGee) found the hole, got it just past us," Boucher said.
With runners at first and third, Bentonville's third run of the inning scored when Jordan Leach mishandled Tabler's slow roller.
"The main thing is our kids never gave up, kept competing and got themselves back in the game," Boucher said. "Even during a tough last part of the season, they never quit giving effort. It's another example of how tough that first game in the tournament is because everybody's got at least one good pitcher and he McGee) was tough tonight."
