Warriors debut 2021 season in the Rock against Episcopal, get set for tourney play in Prescott

LITTLE ROCK — The Ouachita Warriors made the trip to the Capitol City in Little Rock Monday and opened their season on the diamond at Lamar Porter Athletic Field to face the Episcopal Wildcats in senior high baseball competition.

In a tough and competitive seven inning bout, the Warriors fell short in a four-run defeat to the Wildcats.

Following a 1-1 knot at the end of the opening inning of the contest—first inning, Episcopal took the lead on a single in the second inning.

Episcopal knotted the game up at one in the bottom of the first inning, when an error scored one run for Episcopal.

The Wildcats pulled away for good with two runs in the second inning. The Wildcats singled on a 0-1 count, scoring two runs.

The Warriors created some noise on the diamond with a run scored in the fifth, but trailed the Wildcats 5-1 going into the sixth.

The Warriors crossed home plate once in the top of the sixth and seventh innings, but Episcopal three runs in the sixth inning off a big spark at the plate to drive in RBIs secured a convincing victory for the Wildcats in the Rock.

For the game, Ouachita tallied four runs on four hits while the Wildcats finished with eight runs on eight hits with three errors.

Offensively, Kaden Fulmer sparked with a double, with Hunter Hathcock and Brady Huneycutt all led at the plate with a hit apiece. Fulmer also drove in two runs and Barret Ashby drove in one run for RBIs. Caden Lee scored two runs, while Hathcock and Caleb Force each scored a run apiece.

Col ton Braswell led the base running with one stolen base.

Defensively, on the mound Fulmer brought the heat and pitched four innings, allowed six hits, five runs but struck out three batters and threw 46 strikes across the plate. Brady Huneycutt lasted one and two-thirds innings, allowing one hit and three runs while striking out four batters and throwing 20 strikes to heat up the strike zone.

The Warriors are heading back on the road for tourney competition in Nevada County in Prescott for a weekend of action on the diamond. Monday, March 8 the Warriors will host Maumelle for their season home opener at Warrior Field.

Warrior head baseball coach Anthony Nail is excited about this season. Nail feels the Warriors can make some noise of success with several returning players despite a short season ending early due to the COVID-19 virus.

Nail feels the Warriors baseball program is headed into a good direction with several big things to come for the proud Warrior fans to anticipate for diamond season 2021.