Wildcats beat Bulldogs on walk-off hit

SPRINGDALE HAR-BER 3, FAYETTEVILLE 2

SPRINGDALE — Luke Cornelison might have been fooled by the first pitch Henry Hanes threw Monday afternoon, but he didn’t let it happen again.

The Springdale Har-Ber junior belted the next pitch into center field and allowed Evan Curry to race home with the winning run as the Wildcats claimed a 3-2 victory over Fayetteville during 6A-West Conference baseball action at Wildcat Field.

“[Har-Ber] Coach [Dustin] Helmkamp told me to be hunting offspeed early,” Cornelison said. “He threw me a good breaking ball in, then he throw me another one that I was sitting on. I didn’t try to do too much, and it went up the middle.

“I try to take every at-bat like I can get out of anything, like I have confidence in myself with every at-bat. I had no doubt in any of my at-bats — the first one, my second and third. I just got it done in the fourth.”

Fayetteville starter Landon Schaefer had retired the first two Har-Ber batters in the bottom of the seventh, but Ross Felder kept the inning alive with a single to center and was replaced by Curry as a pinch-runner. Kaleb Ceola then bounced back from an 0-2 count and forced a walk with a nine-pitch at-bat.

It caused Schaefer to exceed the 110-pitch limit and leave the mound and eventually set the stage for Cornelison, whose hit gave Har-Ber (16-4, 8-3) its 15th win in its last 16 games and snapped an 11-game win streak for Fayetteville (15-3, 6-3).

“I thought our kids battled hard,” Helmkamp said. “Schaefer is an outstanding pitcher, and we all know it in our league. He did a phenomenal job. Fayetteville is very well-coached, and it was an excellent baseball game. We were fortunate enough to be the last AB and get a big hit.

“I thought, for the most part, we had pretty good ABs all night long as far as work counts. In the seventh inning, we did a great job with two outs and nobody on. Ceola had a great AB to get everything in motion.”

Jaison DeLamar accounted for driving in both of Fayetteville’s runs, including a first-inning single that drove in Charlie Graves and gave the Bulldogs an early 1-0 lead. Har-Ber didn’t respond until the fourth when Dylan Gibson’s single drove in Brady Smith, who led off the inning with a walk. Then Davis Dyer’s hustle to first on a grounder denied Fayetteville a chance for an inning-ending double play and allowed Smith to score.

The Bulldogs then answered in the fifth with two walks against Har-Ber starter Felder and a bunt by Carter Morris, with a Wildcat throwing error allowing the bases to be loaded. DeLamar then allowed Kamden Rogerson to scored from third with the tying run when he lofted a sacrifice fly to center.

“It was a really well-played game on both sides,” Fayetteville Coach Scott Gallagher said. “Two pitchers for them and our starter really did well. It was just a tough situation to enter the game with the 3-hole hitter and two guys on base for Henry right there.

“We had a couple of chances where we had runners on and hit a ball right at them. If those balls fall, we might have had a big inning, but it just didn’t go in our favor.”

Gavin Moore got the win for Har-Ber in relief.

The two teams now head to Bulldog Field this afternoon to conclude their twogame series.