Tigers upset Conway
Posted on Saturday, May 10, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/brog/Sports/60179/
NORTH LITTLE ROCK — Two big innings and a strong performance by senior Erin McGee pushed the Bentonville Tigers into the second round of the Class 7 A State Baseball Tournament.
The Tigers broke a tied game twice with three-run innings in the fifth and seventh to knock off Conway 7-4.
The Bentonville win — capping a 7 A-West Conference sweep of Friday’s four, first-round games — moves the Tigers to a quarterfinal matchup against 7 A-West runner-up Har-Ber today at 2: 30 p. m. The Wampus Cats (19-10 ) beat Bentonville twice Tuesday in a makeup doubleheader.
The Tigers (14-16 ) roughed up Wampus Cats ace — and University of Arkansas-Little Rock commitment — Zach Cates in the seventh.
Cates relieved starter Zach Wyatt to start the sixth and quickly retired the side in order.
His team then tied the game at 4 with its own threerun inning.
But the Tigers, who had lost their last six games, answered in the top of the seventh.
“ That was big, especially after they came back and tied it, for us to come back and jump all over (Cates ), ” Tigers coach Todd Abbott said. “ We knew he was their No. 1 and we were able to put the ball in play. And good things are going to happen.
“ There were a couple of huge momentum shifts there and we were able to take advantage of that last one that last inning. ”
Senior Matt Garza led off the seventh with a double and scored when Derrick Lamp’s sacrifice bunt was thrown away by Cates. Lamp advanced to second and scored on senior Adam Seal’s double to center.
The Tigers’ last run came home on senior Martin Tabler’s two-out single.
McGee (5-3 ) then got a strikeout — his seventh of the game — and, after a single, two grounders to end it.
McGee scattered 5 hits — with three of them coming in the Wampus Cats’ big sixth inning.
“(McGee ) stepped up his game tonight on the mound and did a fantastic job, ” Abbott said. “ That’s the best game he’s thrown all year. He really stepped up and came through big for us. ”
The only hit he allowed in the first five innings was Cates ’ solo home run to center that gave Conway a 1-0 lead in the first.
Bentonville junior Erik Ragsdale tied the game with a solo shot in the fourth and the Tigers took their first lead in the fifth.
After a leadoff walk to Kyle Hartman and a two-out single by Seal — who finished with 2 hits — Conway (19-11 ) intentionally walked Buster Gean to load the bases.
But McGee, who also had 2 hits, ripped a two-run single to break the tie. Conway third baseman Jordan Leach then couldn’t handle Tabler’s grounder, allowing another run to score on the error.
Cates led Conway with 2 hits, including a single to start the sixth inning.
Stephen Hicks later hit a bases-loaded single to score a pair of runs and an errant throw on the play allowed another run to score to tie it at 4.