Harding Academy and Horatio advance in 3A
SMACKOVER - It will be Horatio versus Harding Academy for the 3A state baseball championship. The two teams advanced Saturday in the semifinals with the Lions downing Glen Rose 5-0 before the Wildcats toppled Mayflower 3-1 at Smackover High School.
Horatio’s Kenley Anderson held the Beavers to just two hits in a 7-inning masterpiece. Anderson struck out three and did not walk a batter while throwing just 67 pitches.
Glen Rose’s Carson Fite took the loss despite a solid outing. He gave up five runs on 11 hits with five strikeouts and three walks.
Horatio scored a run in the second and then added two in the third on solo home runs by Garrett Wilson and Wade Beasley. Beasley doubled and scored in the fifth on a two-out single by Dakota Frachisuer, who scored on a single by Ryan Vaught.
Wilson, Beasley, Frachisuer and Parker Smith had two hits apiece for Horatio.
Noah Lankford and Adam Day accounted for the Beavers’ two singles.
In the second semifinal,
Harding Academy’s Dalton Koch gave up a lead-off single and then nothing else against Mayflower. Koch surrendered one run on one hit with three strikeouts. He threw just 75 pitches in the 7-inning gem. During one stretch, Koch retired 14 batters in a row and finished the game by getting 21 of the last 22 batters out.
Mayflower’s Dalton Muse hit the first pitch of the game for a single. Muse eventually scored on a passed ball.
The Wildcats answered with a run in the second
when Seth Morgan singled, advanced to second on a passed ball, to third on a ground out and scored on a ground out by Caleb Campbell.
In the fourth, Morgan doubled before Timmy Stewart singled. Campbell’s single scored the go-ahead run. Stewart would later score on an error.
Morgan was 2-for-3 with two runs scored. Harding Academy had six hits in the game.
Mayflower’s Logan Funderberg took the loss. He pitched five innings, allowing three runs on six hits with two strikeouts and one walk. Muse pitched the final two innings, retiring all six batters.