Cleveland, Sheridan unflappable in stretch

FAYETTEVILLE — Tyler Cleveland knows how to finish strong.

Cleveland, a 6-3 right-handed junior pitcher for Sheridan, retired the final 10 batters he faced Saturday morning to lead the Yellowjackets to a 3-1 victory over Jonesboro in the Class 6A state championship game at Baum Stadium.

Just five days earlier, Cleveland (9-1) set down the final 15 Greenwood batters in a 1-0 semifinal victory.

“I felt good,” said Cleveland, who struck out 11 and walked none in a 95-pitch performance. “I did a lot of running this week and got my arm healthy and where it needed to be. Everybody did what they’re supposed to do today, and you saw what happened.”

Cleveland helped his own cause with an RBI single in the second. Senior David Vilches singled in a run in the third and senior Nick Whitley hit a one-out home run in the seventh to provide the Yellowjackets (33-5) with all the offense they needed.

Jonesboro sophomore Zane Ryne Neves (10-1) also finished well, holding Sheridan to no hits in his final three innings of work. Neves gave up 4 hits, struck out 8 and walked 4 in 6 innings.

“I thought they both pitched extremely well,” Jonesboro Coach Mark Dobson said. “I thought Zane did an outstanding job, even in some tough spots. They put a lot of pressure on us early, especially in that second inning. He could have folded up, the team could have folded up. But they didn’t.”

Jonesboro (29-4) collected all three of its hits in the fourth inning.

Cleveland retired the first nine batters Saturday, stretching his streak to 24 in a row from his previous outing. But Jonesboro senior Will Batson hit a two-strike pitch into center field to break up Cleveland’s no-hit bid.

“He was cruising,” Sheridan Coach Mike Moore said. “He went through their order the first time through with no problems, but then leaves an 0-2 pitch up to the batter. That’s very uncharacteristic of him.”

After a sacrifice bunt by Sam Edwards pushed Batson to second, junior Cameron Poston hit a fly ball to the outfield that junior center fielder Nathan Kirkpatrick misjudged for an RBI double that cut Sheridan’s lead to 2-1.

Two batters later, Sheridan shortstop Chance Wallingsford saved a run by making a diving stop of Kayden Boyle’s hard-hit ground ball. Boyle got credit for an infield single, but Wallingsford’s stop kept Poston from scoring the tying run.

Cleveland limited the damage to one run by striking out Logan Orr to end the inning.

“The thing is, they had the momentum right there and they only got one [run],” Moore said. “(Cleveland) sees that as a red flag and says, ‘I’m going to shut them down now.’ And that’s what he did. He is a warrior.”

Of the 10 final batters Cleveland faced, six of them were retired on strikeouts.

Cleveland got an extra run to work with in the seventh when Whitley hit his fourth home run of the season.

“I knew instantly when he hit that ball that it was gone,” Moore said. “I knew [Jonesboro] would have trouble getting one, much less two.”

“When I hit it, it didn’t hit me until I was almost to second base,” Whitley said. “Then I started thinking, ‘Oh, holy crap! It’s my senior year, and I just hit a home run in the state championship game.’ ”

Cleveland struck out two batters and got Orr to pop up to junior Hunter Hicks at second base for the game’s final out.

“Like I told my kids, ‘We didn’t lose today. We got beat,’ ” Dobson said. “Sheridan played great. I’ve walked off the field before and felt terrible about how we played and that we gave stuff away. We didn’t give anything away today. We got beat, and there’s nothing wrong with the way we played.”