Marion sweeps past Searcy
SEARCY — Through four innings of the first game of Tuesday night’s baseball doubleheader to open 5A-East Conference play, Searcy seemed to be in good shape against Marion.
The Lions led 1-0 with just nine outs left to record.
Then Marion shortstop Matthew Kearney delivered the biggest hit of the season so far, and the Patriots never looked back.
Kearney cranked a tworun home run in the top of the fifth to give Marion its first lead at 2-1, and the Patriots made it stand up by scoring all nine of its runs in the last three innings to pull away for a 9-3 victory.
Marion (6-0, 2-0) turned to junior right-hander Cohen Bumbaugh for the second game. He carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning, and he struck out 14 in five innings as Marion coasted to a 12-2 run-rule victory.
“I was proud of the guys tonight because we had to do some stuff to manufacture some stuff,” Marion Coach Pete Prater said. “Some of the things we preach in our program we had to go to tonight — moving runners, putting guys in motion, hit and runs, stuff like that,. Because let’s face it, we aren’t going to come out most nights and get 10 hits. It’s just the way it is. But we found other ways to win.”
Marion senior righthander Davis York earned the win in the first game by working into the sixth inning, striking out 9, allowing 3 runs — 1 earned — on 2 hits and 1 walk.
York gave way to classmate Jack Carter in the sixth inning. Carter fired 13 strikes in his 16 pitches to notch the save.
Searcy shortstop Luis Arman reached on an error leading off the first inning, and he scored on a York balk as the Lions led 1-0 after an inning.
That bulge lasted until the top of the fifth inning when Marion senior catcher Landon Miller led off with a triple and scored two pitches later when Kearney blasted a home run to deep left field for a 2-1 lead.
“It definitely changed our feeling in the dugout because as a coach you’re always looking to do something to get it going a little bit,” Prater said. “We all kind of relaxed a little bit after that hit.”
Marion picked up four unearned runs in the sixth and two more in the seventh, including a home run from junior Tyler Carey.
A 25-minute break between games did little to slow the Marion attack.
Bumbaugh took the ball in the first inning and struck out the side for the first of three times in the game.
In the first, Marion turned 5 walks and 3 hits into 7 runs, the big swing being a two-run single by Solomon Flores and a two-run double by Miller as the Patriots took a 7-0 lead.
Marion scored five more times in the second on the back of three more walks and hits from York and Coleman Barnett as the Patriots held a 12-0 lead after two innings.
Bumbaugh struck out the side in the third and fourth innings, but Searcy’s Chase Tengler reached on an error leading off the inning before Bumbaugh surrendered a one-out single to Michael Lincoln for the Lions’ first hit. Tengler and Lincoln went on to score Searcy’s only runs of the second game before Marion closed out the 10-run victory in five innings.