Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Conway hangs on to slip past Fayetteville
FAYETTEVILLE — A controversial finish to the Class 7A baseball state semifinals left a sour taste in the mouth of host Fayetteville on Saturday while Conway (25-4) advances to the 7A state finals for the first time since 2011.
Fayetteville was attempting to reach a third consecutive state finals game, but came up short 3-2 Saturday at Bulldog Field after a called third strike on the Bulldogs’ final at-bat.
On an 0-2 pitch, Conway relief pitcher Cade Tucker struck out Fayetteville’s Cody Davenport on a called strike on a half swing by Davenport. Fayetteville strongly disagreed with the call, which ended the game and the Bulldogs’ season.
“(The home plate umpire) didn’t have to make that call and he didn’t have to make that check swing call,” Fayetteville coach Vance Arnold said. “If we bunt to second base with the three and four hole hitters coming up, anything can happen.
“But they took advantage of their breaks. We battled back a couple of times and they held us to one run in those innings. It felt like a classic championship-type game and this easily could have been the championship. If we just could have gotten the timely hit when we had the bases loaded, but we didn’t.”
Conway kept the pressure on Fayetteville from the start. A leadoff single by McCall Dale and an RBI single to left by Jacob Adams gave the Wampus Cats a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. After a misplayed pop up on a lost ball in the sun kept a rally going in the top of the fourth, Conway added a second run on a two-out RBI single by Jordan Wicks.
“Here we are at their home place, it’s the semifinals and we’re both playing great ball and it’s a great crowd in a great atmosphere here at the end of the year,” Wampus Cats coach Noel Boucher said. “We were lucky to be up 3-2 at the end and it was just a great game.”
Fayetteville ( 27- 4) was kept off balance in the early innings by Conway starting pitcher Matt Strickland, but finally chipped away with a run in the bottom of the fifth when Davenport drew a twoout, bases loaded walk against Tucker.
The Wampus Cats responded in the sixth, regaining their two-run lead when Grayson Pinkett doubled with one out. Courtesy runner Brayden Leach would later score on a Davenport wild pitch for a 3-1 Conway lead.
“That was big,” Boucher said. “We came back up and kept playing. We’ve been preaching that all year, just keep playing and don’t worry about what’s going on. This is a pretty good group.”
The Bulldogs had plenty of chances in the fifth and sixth innings. But after loading the bases in both innings and coming away with just one run in each inning, the game came down to the bottom of the seventh with Fayetteville trailing, 3-2.
Drew Tyler led off for the Purple’Dogs and was initially called safe on a slow grounder to third base, with a ruling that the first baseman’s foot had come off the base. The call was overturned, however, by the home plate umpire, forcing Fayetteville to attempt to start a rally with none on and one out in the inning.
After a Thomas Broyles ground out to first, Davenport was Fayetteville’s last chance.