Rockets advance despite backfire
LITTLE ROCK CATHOLIC 14, BENTONVILLE WEST 6
Little Rock Catholic defeated Bentonville West 14-6 in a playoff game Thursday night, but a gamble by the Rockets was anything but successful in the Class 7A state tournament at Vince DeSalvo Stadium in North Little Rock.
Starting pitcher Evan Hiatt tossed two perfect innings but was taken out of the game with the Rockets holding a 6-0 advantage. Catholic Coach Dustin Strube rolled the dice, pulling his left-handed ace in the hopes that the Rockets relievers could keep the Wolverines from making a comeback and allow Hiatt to return to the mound for tonight’s quarterfinal game with Rogers.
“We kind of had a plan,” Strube said. “My number going into it was eight. We’ve been swinging the bats pretty well and I was going to pull the trigger if we could get off to a good start. We got up by six and I thought ‘Let’s give it a shot.’”
The ploy failed miserably. West (18-12) rallied for four runs in the third and added two more when Hiatt re-entered the game in the fourth. The Rockets, however, regained their footing and eventually put the Wolverines away.
Catholic (16-13) banged out 10 hits and West was guilty of six errors.
“Actually we had eight errors and we walked six,” West Coach Chip Durham said. “That’s the difference right there. Hey, we gave them a run for their money. They took their guy out and we battled with them. We came back and they had to bring him back in.”
Hiatt’s final numbers were stout. He struck out 8, walked 5 and allowed only 2 hits and no earned runs in a combined 5 1/3 innings. He threw the maximum 110 pitches.
“It was a little difficult to come back in the game,” Hiatt said. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to need to come back. … But I’m always ready. I have a bulldog mentality to come back in and throw strikes.”
West managed only 4 hits off the Rockets, but four Catholic pitchers combined to walk 6 and hit 2. The Rockets also were guilty of three errors.
The Catholic bats were anything but sour. Junior Jack Foster drove in two runs with two singles, including one that put the Rockets up for good in the fourth inning. Sophomore John Satterfield finished 2 for 4 with a two-run double. Junior Miles Montgomery was 2 for 3 with a run-scoring double. Hiatt belted two doubles, one of which resulted in a RBI.
“Our defense didn’t help us out,” Strube said. “We’re going to have to clean up the defense.”
After Rockets reliever Pierce Althoff got Seth Schonauer to fly out to left to start the third inning, the next six Wolverines reached base. Dylan Carter’s two-run single highlighted the four-run inning. Carter also produced a bases-loaded walk off of Hiatt in the fourth inning.
“The guys we had relieve in the third did not throw that badly,” Strube said. “If we make plays behind them, our plan works. But it didn’t and having to bring Evan back, I think, got him out of his rhythm. He wasn’t quite the same, but he’s the type of guy who’s been there, done that and been through a lot of battles.”