Benton’s big bats too much for HSV

HOT SPRINGS VILLAGE — Benton Everett GMC’s Sean Small turned things up in a midweek thriller Wednesday night while collecting eight RBI as the visitors outhit Hot Springs Village 13-6 and took home a 15-3 win.

Both teams remained scoreless throughout the opening frame until Benton put up six runs in the top of the second.

Gage Ashilantubbi found home plate for Benton’s first score of the game after walking to lead off the inning. Teammate Brendan Burks scored the second run of the night after reaching base on a back-to-back walk that gave Everett an early 2-0 advantage.

After allowing three singles to load up the bases, Small went deep for a grand slam to push Benton ahead 6-0.

“Doesn’t help when you got a field that’s 285 [feet] and then they’ve got some bigger sticks than what we’ve got, so that’s what really hurt us,” said HSV head coach Richard Cheek. “That’s a big difference in a ball game.”

HSV rallied and responded in the bottom half of the second when Joey Kilzer walked the base paths and eventually scored on a wild pitch, giving Graves Sports its first run on the night to pull within 6-1.

In the top of the third, Everett GMC crowded home plate with five more runs, including three runs on Small’s second long ball of the game to increase its lead to 11-1.

Things slowed things down as HSV found themselves closing in on the fifth inning while on the verge of a mercy rule finish until Matt Carmack led things off with a double, scoring later on an RBI single by Cade Jackson to keep the game alive while trailing Benton 11-2.

Graves Sports scored one more run in the bottom half of the sixth after Jack Wurz was walked and went on to cross home plate for the team’s final run. Benton scored its final four runs in the top of the seventh.

“We’ve just got to hit he ball better,” Cheek noted. “We picked it up a little bit late tonight.”

Hitting will be the team’s focus leading up to Tuesday’s game at Texarkana.

“Our next game is in Texarkana against an American Legion team down there, and they’ve got a triple A team,” he said. “We’re going to have our work cut out for us.”

Christian Young picked up the win for Benton as he pitched 5 1/3 innings before teammate Triston Hammonds entered in relief to close out the game. Young struck out six batters and allowed two runs on three hits while walking six.

Carmack came in for HSV in the fourth after being down 11-1 and held Benton to no hits or baserunners for nine consecutive outs, including two strikeouts.