Van Buren claims 5A-West championship

5A-WEST BASEBALL

VAN BUREN 3-4, RUSSELLVILLE 2-1

VAN BUREN — The Van Buren Pointers celebrated a championship, Senior Night and birthdays on Tuesday night.

Van Buren capped a doubleheader sweep of Russellville with a 4-1 win in the nightcap to clinch its second straight outright 5A-West title at Iverson Riggs Field at the Field of Dreams.

Van Buren (23-5, 13-1) will play the fourth seed from the 6A-Central in the opening round of the Class 5A state tournament on May 12 at Hot Springs’ Majestic Park.

The sweep coupled with Greenwood’s 1- 0 win over Greenbrier in the first game of that conference doubleheader put Van Buren a game ahead of Greenbrier for the top seed.

“We knew coming in that we needed to get two,” Van Buren coach Luke Weatherford said. “Russellville is a really good team, a really well coached team. We knew it was going to be a battle both games. I’m super proud of our seniors. They helped elevate our program to a place it hasn’t been.”

Tuesday, birthday boys Hayden Hurst and Josh Nowotney lit the candle for the Pointers.

“It’s absolutely awesome,” Hurst said. “We woke up and maybe we could play and maybe we couldn’t. We got it done. We got to get out here on the most beautiful field in the state, and get two wins.”

Hurst drove in Van Buren’s go-ahead run in the first inning with a single that scored Eli Gilreath for a 2-0 lead.

Malachi Henry led off the game with a triple and scored on Presley Nichols’ ground ball for Van Buren’s first run.

Jackson Rotert, another senior, led of the home half of the fourth inning with a homer to deep center for a 3-1 cushion.

Nowotney singled home pinch-runner Caleb Adams, who was running for Rotert after a walk, for a 4-1 lead.

“It was great,” Nowotney said. “We capped it off as conference champs.”

Russellville ( 12-18, 7-7) loaded the bases in the seventh, but Gilreath came on in relief and struck out the final batter. Devin Gattis stifled Russellville until reaching his 110-pitch limit, allowing just the leadoff hitter of the game to score. He finished with 10 strikeouts.

VAN BUREN 3, RUSSELLVILLE 2

Gilreath drilled a base hit down the third-base line to drive in Devin Gattis with the winning run with one out in the bottom of the seventh for the Pointers in the first game of the varsity doubleheader.

Gilreath also earned the win on the mound with another sensational performance. The senior right hander allowed just three hits, two earned runs, walked one and struck out five in going the distance with 97 pitches.

Gilreath’s hit capped a two-run rally for the Pointers in the bottom of the inning.

Nowotney opened the inning with a double into the gap in right center and went to third on a bloop single by Gattis.

Russellville led 1-0 on a titanic homer to dead center in the second inning before Van Buren tied it in the third inning on a run-scoring double to deep right by Gilreath that scored Gattis, who led off the inning by reaching on an error.

Russellville took a 2-1 lead on a single by Dawson that scored Gabriel Ellison, who doubled down the line in the fourth inning.