Seventh inning favors Springdale

SPRINGDALE 13, BENTONVILLE WEST 7

CENTERTON — The odd- numbered innings favored Springdale, while the even- numbered innings leaned in Bentonville West’s direction Tuesday evening.

First-year Springdale coach Tim Carver is glad high school games last seven innings after the Bulldogs scored six times in the seventh and split their 6A-West Conference series against West with a 13-7 victory at the Wolverine Athletic Complex.

“We talk a lot about winning on Tuesdays,” Carver said. “Because no matter what happens on the first day, you can either sweep or you can split. As long as you can split and win on Tuesdays, you have a chance to win at the end of the season.

“Our kids, we challenged them all week. We knew they had good guys, and they pitched well. But our kids, they really stood up to the challenge. I’m so proud of our kids right now. We didn’t play a perfect game, but we found a way to be the ones standing at the end.”

Caleb Horsey, who had three of Springdale’s 15 hits, started the seventh with his second double as he belted one to the center-field fence. Yadiel Canales then drew a walk to set things up for Kyle Langford, and Carver chose to revert to something he saw a lot during his playing days at Arkansas.

Langford turned like he was about to drop a bunt, then the two baserunners took off as Langford pulled the bat back and swung. The result was a single through the hole into right field, which allowed Horsey to score and give the Red’Dogs (9-3, 2-2) an 8-7 lead.

“That’s something we did a lot at the university with coach ( Dave) Van Horn,” Carver said. “We did it every day. I remember we did it at Little Rock against Louisiana Tech, and it’s always stuck with me, so I keep it in our toolbox.

“It’s one of those situations where there’s a time in the game when something big is going to happen, one way or the other. We want to be the ones putting the pressure on them instead of them putting on us.”

The play not only gave Springdale the lead, but it also opened the floodgates. A passed ball and a balk allowed two more Bulldog runs to score then Andrew Lind and Hayden Peters hit backto-back RBI doubles before Bryson Scott’s single drove in the sixth and final run.

Hunter Guill, meanwhile, provided a lot of the offense for West (11-5, 3-1) as he put the Wolverines on the board in the second with a three-run home run. He also had a pair of sacrifice flies, including on in the sixth that drove in Dawson Price and tied the game at 7-7.

Lind pitched the final two innings in relief of starter Myron Erks and picked up the victory. Landon Grigg suffered the loss for West after he threw four innings of relief work.