Baseball Season Opens With Harrison Tournament
The McDonald County High School baseball
team opened its 2017 season by going
1-2 at the Harrison Tournament on March 17-18 in Harrison, Ark. The Mustangs opened the tournament at 10 p.m. on March 17 following a two-hour rain delay with a 7-3 loss
to Malvern. Ark.
The McDonald County High School baseball team opened its 2017 season by going 1-2 at the Harrison Tournament on March 17-18 in Harrison, Ark.
The Mustangs opened the tournament at 10 p.m. on Friday night following a two-hour rain delay with a 7-3 loss to Malvern. Ark.
Malvern scored its seven runs, four earned, on just five hits off of McDonald County starter Charlie Moore and reliever Jorge Ruiz. Moore went four innings, allowing four runs, one earned, on three hits. The sophomore right-hander walked three, hit two others while striking out six. Ruiz went an inning and two-thirds, allowing three runs on two hits while walking three and striking out one.
Malvern scored a run in the bottom of the first on a walk, an error and a fielder’s choice. McDonald County took a 2-1 lead in the top of the second. Boston Dowd, Mark Kailbourn and Jordan Platter all walked with one out to load the bases before Emmanuel Baisch drove in a pair of runs with a two-out single.
Malvern tied the game in the bottom half of the inning on a leadoff home run by Dalton Bray before taking a 3-2 lead in the third on a walk, a single, a hit batter and an error.
The Mustangs tied the game in the top of the fourth on Platter’s one-out single, Baisch’s second hit of the game and an error.
Malvern took a 4-3 lead in the bottom half of the inning and added two insurance runs in the fifth and another in the sixth.
Baisch finished with two of the Mustangs’ four hits, while Platter and Jaime Hanke each had one.
McDonald County bounced back Saturday morning with a 5-3 win over Morrilton, Ark., behind the four-hit pitching of Hanke and Brandon Burt. Hanke went six and two-thirds of an inning, allowing three runs on four hits. The senior right-hander struck out eight and walked three. Burt got the last out of the game on a strikeout with the tying run at the plate.
McDonald County took advantage of three Morrilton errors to score five runs on just three hits, including two by Baisch. Hanke had the only other Mustang hit.
The Mustangs took a 1-0 lead in the first on a leadoff double by Baisch and an error. Morrilton took a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth on three consecutive singles and a squeeze bunt.
McDonald County answered in its half of the inning, scoring three runs on just one hit, Baisch’s RBI single. Two errors and a walk to Oakley Roessler set up the Mustangs’ big inning.
McDonald County stretched its lead to 5-2 in the sixth on walks to Dowd, Roessler, Baisch and a passed ball.
Morrilton scored a run off Hanke in the seventh on two walks and a fielder’s choice before Burt got the final out of the game.
In the fifth place game, Harrison scored a pair of first inning runs and then broke a 2-2 tie in the fifth with two more runs on the way to a 5-2 win.
Tyler Sellers started for the Mustangs, allowing four runs, one earned, on six hits in four and two-thirds innings. Sellers struck out two, walked four and hit two batters before Grant Cooper worked the final two and a third innings, allowing an unearned run on one hit.
After Harrison scored two runs in the first on two walks, a double, a hit batter and an error, the Mustangs scored single runs in the second and fourth to tie the game.
In the second, Kailbourn singled to lead off the inning and went to second on a sacrifice bunt by Joe Brown before scoring on an error. Dowd singled and scored on Brown’s single in the fourth to tie the game.
Harrison scored the go-ahead runs in the fifth on a walk and two hits. The Goblins added an insurance run in the sixth on two errors and a bunt hit.
McDonald County was held to six singles, one each by Hanke, Dowd, Kailbourn, Brown, Roessler and Tyler Stoutsenberger.
“We have to clean some stuff up defensively and we will,” said coach Nick Martin. “We can’t give teams things they don’t deserve. We aren’t the type of team offensively that can score 8-10 runs. We are going to win games on our pitching and defense. We had some guys swing the bat pretty well, but we are very green. We started five sophomores, and this was our first games while our opponents had played 7-10 games. We definitely saw some things we can improve on and we will get it done. Hanke threw real well and all of our pitchers put us in a situation to win. With the new pitch count rules, we definitely need to throw more strikes to be able to go deeper into games.”
Shiloh Christian
Defending Arkansas Class 4 state champion Shiloh Christian scored a pair of runs with two outs in the bottom of the seventh to pull out a 2-1 win over McDonald County on March 20 at Shiloh Christian High School in Springdale, Ark.
McDonald County junior righthander Grant Cooper took a three-hit shutout in to the seventh, but the Saints tied the game on a one-out single by Logan Raben, a stolen base and a two-hit game-tying hit from Connor Clark.
Cooper then hit a batter and walked the next to load the bases before reliever Brandon Burt appeared to get out of the jam by inducing Luke Johnson into popping up, but Johnson’s popup was dropped on the infield allowing the winning run to score.
“Grant definitely deserved better,” Martin said. “He threw a great game. He kept their hitters off balance and gave us a great shot to win. We didn’t have much offense, but he kept us in the game.”
McDonald County’s only run came in the top of sixth on a walk to Baisch, a sacrifice by Stoutsenberger and a two-out RBI single by Jon Martin.
Shiloh Christian’s Landon Brown went the first six innings, allowing the one run on two hits before Tyler Roth shut out the Mustangs in the seventh, allowing one hit and striking out two, for the win.
In addition to Martin’s hit, the Mustangs’ only other hits were singles by Stoutsenberger and Ty Shaver.
McDonald County falls to 1-3 entering its home opener on March 23 against Neosho.