Drillers to play in state tournament
With the memory of their stunning comeback from a five-run deficit to top Stuttgart still fresh on their minds, the El Dorado Drillers are hoping their momentum will continue with the start of the Arkansas American Legion Junior State Tournament.
The Drillers (9-13-1) will take on Jacksonville at 1:30 p.m. today at Hendrix College's Warrior Field in their opener.
In just their third year of playing, the Drillers qualified for the state tournament for the first time with their comeback win over Stuttgart, and coach Greg Harrison credited his players for persevering.
"It means a lot because a lot of these kids have been playing with us for the past couple of years," Harrison said. "They've grown up into the system. They've seen competition from other parts of the state. Some of these young men are playing at 2A, 3A schools, and they're getting to play against 4A, 5A competition."
Against the Ricemen, the Drillers never could get the big hit until their rally in the seventh.
Although they scored a run in the second inning, the Drillers left the bases loaded.
Chase Webb, who later won the game with a walkoff single, was thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple to start the fourth, and the Drillers left two more runners on base after scoring a run in the sixth when Baylor Brumley's line drive was snagged by third baseman Carson Crawford.
But that all changed in the seventh.
"We had a lot of guys that were swinging the bat well, but they were hitting it right at them," Harrison said. "But we started finding those holes. They didn't give up. They kept looking for their pitch. They fought for seven hard innings, and they earned it."
The Drillers' pitching staff took their lumps in falling to Texarkana on Monday, but Webb and Tyler Martin both pitched well in their outings against Arkadelphia and Stuttgart respectively.
Martin also picked up a save in Sunday's win, and left-hander Landen Rainwater recorded some key outs in relief in the Drillers' two wins.
For Harrison, using Martin and Rainwater against the Ricemen came down to matchups.
"Definitely," Harrison said. "Whenever it comes to tournament time, you've got to look at your matchups. This was the third game of the tournament, and we had thrown Tyler about seven pitches, and Landen had thrown about 20 pitches in one inning. We had to look at our situations. They were two young men that we knew we could depend on."
As far as carrying momentum from the zone tournament to the state tournament is concerned, Harrison believes his team can build off of their
performance from earlier this week.
"Absolutely," Harrison said. "Everybody got an opportunity to pitch. Everybody got to see some action out there. We tried to see what we had that was the best value out of each one of our guys and use them to the best of our ability."