Baptist Prep, just 10 strong, rolls to regional title
3A-REGION 3 CHAMPIONSHIP
BAPTIST PREP 10, LAMAR 4
Eight was enough for Baptist Prep in its two previous games against Lamar, but 10 seemed much more appropriate in meeting No. 3 on Saturday.
Pitcher Hunter Sherrill kept the Eagles close until their bats finally came around as Baptist Prep ran away for a 10-4 victory to win the 3A-Region 3 championship at Burns Park in North Little Rock.
Junior Blake Brown delivered three hits and four RBI to power Baptist Prep (16-8), which beat Lamar on April 21 and April 28 by identical 8-1 scores.
This time, the Eagles answered a two-run Warriors’ rally in the top of the sixth by scoring a pair of runs in the bottom half of the inning to put some distance between them and their 3A-5 Conference rivals.
The Eagles are 12-1 since March 30 and dominated their league en route to winning their second regular-season conference title in the past three seasons. Saturday’s victory was especially gratifying for Baptist Prep Coach Eddie Stephenson, who’s had to navigate through the year with just 10 players on his roster.
“These guys just never, ever quit,” Stephenson said. “It’s been that way all season with these guys. They know they’ve got to go out there and work their tails off, and they’ve done it each and every time they’ve went on the field. We struggled a little bit at times early [Saturday], but we believe.
“We know that if we just keep putting good at-bats together that we’re going to eventually get to people. These guys never panic.”
Sherrill certainly kept his cool after getting off to a shaky start. The sophomore threw balls on his first nine pitches and had some unsteady moments throughout the course of the game, but he never allowed the Warriors to score in bunches.
Whenever Lamar (26-9) threatened, Sherrill came up with big outs. He threw 113 pitches in 6 innings and gave up only 1 hit while striking out 4 and walking 9.
That’s not bad considering the right-hander found out he was getting the start 30 minutes prior to game time.
“We told him that he was just going to have to pitch through it,” Stephenson said of Sherrill’s early troubles. “Trust that the offense was going to score some runs, and he did. Only having 10 players, they’ve had to grow up and mature.
“I told Hunter that he was the guy right before the game, and then went to Caiden [Scaife] and told him he was next. Those two had to get it done, and they did.”
Scaife, a sophomore, came on after Sherrill’s exit to get the save.
The Warriors scored two runs in the second inning, with the big blow coming on a hard-hit RBI single from senior Zuriel Barton. Baptist Prep’s bats work up in the fourth.
Junior Cooper West’s RBI double pulled the Eagles within 2-1 before Brown’s two-run single put them ahead. Sherrill added a run-scoring hit in the inning.
The Eagles tacked on four more runs in the fifth. Brown got the surge going with a squeeze bunt that sent senior Cole Somers racing home. A walk and hit batsman, all with the bases loaded, resulted in two more runs. Junior Jackson Mullen’s two-out sacrifice fly gave Baptist Prep an 8-2 cushion.
Lamar scored twice in the sixth to cut its deficit in half, but the Eagles tacked on two more runs.
“You’ve got to give credit to Lamar because they played a heck of a game,” Stephenson said. “They had a great run through the regional and made us work for everything. But I’m just proud of the way my guys fought and fought.”
In the third-place game, DeWitt gave up just one hit to run-rule Palestine-Wheatley 15-0 in three innings.
Baptist Prep also won the 3A-Region 3 softball title after beating Atkins 5-1. The Eagles, who’ve lost just once in their last 15 games, had defeated the Red Devils twice this year prior to Saturday.
Mayflower battled back to knock off Dover 10-7 and take the region’s third seed.