Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Carlisle’s grand slam powers Fort Smith past Little Rock
BRYANT — Fort Smith Sportsman got a boost from a reserve to help take the bite out of the Little Rock Vipers on Thursday.
Kent Carlisle came off the bench and delivered a grand slam in the bottom of the sixth inning to snap a 6-6 tie and power Sportsman to a 10-8 victory in the second round of the American Legion AAA State Baseball Tournament at Hornet Field in Bryant.
Matt Schilling, Dakota Peters and Breck Burris all had two hits apiece for Fort Smith, which staved off a series of Little Rock rallies to advance to Saturday’s 8 p.m. semifinal against Cabot.
Sportsman, who drew a first-round bye, had eight players record hits in the game, but none were bigger than Carlisle’s blast during a game in which the Vipers battled back from a three-run deficit to grab a lead.
“I tell you what, the young man came through for us,” Fort Smith Coach Trey Prieur said, referring to Carlisle. “His first at-bat in the game because he didn’t start. … That says a lot about him. As a young guy to hit a big grand slam like that was huge.
“And then afterwards, we were able to hold on because Little Rock just kept coming.”
Peters had an RBI single and Burris scored on a fielder’s choice in the bottom of the first inning to give Sportsman an early 2-0 cushion.
The Vipers later sliced into that lead in the top of the fourth after Garrett Hatfield’s hit allowed Cole Somers to score from second.
But Fort Smith responded with a pair of runs in its half of the inning. Schilling’s RBI double sent Bryce Waters home to push Sportsman’s advantage to 3-1. Schilling would eventually score on a double from Colton Sagely.
Little Rock would battle back in the fifth.
After Prieur brought in Brayden Ross for starting pitcher Jeff Carver at the top of the inning, three of the Vipers’ first four batters reached base safely. Robert Bavon, an Oklahoma State commit, ripped an RBI double into left-center field to score K.J. Merriweather. Three pitches later, Grant Jones sent Bavon home on a sharply hit single to pull Little Rock within 4-3.
“Little Rock, my hat’s off to them because they’re a very good team,” Prieur said. “One through nine, they can hit it. I never felt comfortable, at all.
“Every time I made a pitching change, they’d score two or three runs. It made me second-guess myself because I was like, ‘dadgum, stop making changes.’ ”
An RBI single from Tanner Callahan gave Fort Smith a 5-3 lead in the bottom of the fifth. But after Ross was replaced by Grant Shankle in the sixth, the Vipers struck again.
A two-run double from Bavon and an RBI single from Jones gave Little Rock a 6-5 lead, its first of the game.
Fort Smith, however, would move out front for good in the following at-bat. The Sportsman scored five runs on three hits in the inning, with Carlisle providing the big blow with his home run over the left-field wall off Little Rock reliever Karebe Thrower.
The Vipers would plate a pair of runs in the seventh, but Shankle got Andrew Pickering to fly out to end the game.
“We had a first-round bye so we haven’t played a game since last Friday,” Prieur said. “I could tell we were a little bit rusty. But we’re very thankful to win that ballgame because Little Rock is very, very good.
“Our kids stayed with it, though. The ultimate goal is to win a state championship, and sometimes, you’ve got to win a game like that. Our guys stayed in it, kept competing and came out on top.”
Bavon and Jones had three hits each for Little Rock, which will play Paragould in an elimination game at 3 p.m. Saturday in Sheridan.