Fayetteville halts Heritage’s 21-game streak, wins in 12th

FAYETTEVILLE — Fayetteville went to extra innings to hand Rogers Heritage its first defeat of the season.

Fayetteville scored an unearned run in the bottom of the 12th inning to defeat Heritage 8-7 in 6A-West Conference baseball action Tuesday at Bulldog Stadium. Fayetteville earned the victory after losing Monday to Heritage (21-1, 11-1), which extended its winning streak to 21 consecutive with a 7-2 victory at War Eagle Stadium.

Fayetteville (19-4, 8-4) won the game despite being outhit 13-8 by Heritage. The Bulldogs also made four of the game’s five errors. Heritage reliever Dillon Askew and Fayetteville relievers Blake Pennington and Charlie Garton took turns putting up zeros on the scoreboard until Fayetteville managed the unearned run against Braxton Graber.

“Obviously, the bullpen was huge for us,” Fayetteville Coach Scott Gallagher said. “Blake Pennington did a great job coming in and putting up zeros with one unearned run. Garton put up some zeros then we just found a way to win.”

Chayse Dutile and Landon Schaefer each drew walks to give Fayetteville a scoring opportunity in the bottom of the 12th.

The winning run came home when Heritage catcher Brett Renfrow threw to first base on a pickoff attempt. The ball hit the runner’s hand as he reached for the bag and bounced into right field as the winning run crossed the plate.

Heritage Coach Brian Walker said the loss doesn’t change any of the goals the War Eagles set out to achieve before the season began.

“Our guys are trained from August 1 to compete,” Walker said. “We just didn’t play well enough. It hurts right now, but everything they set out to accomplish is in front of them. The objective is to win conference, then get to the state tournament and win a state championship.”

Schaefer and Eli Patrick had two hits apiece for Fayetteville. Bennett Crafton had a home run and two singles to lead Heritage.

Fayetteville threatened to win in the bottom of the eighth when Patrick and Charlie Graves each reached on singles to start the inning. Jaison DeLamar advanced the runners with a sacrifice but Askew retired the next two batters on pop-ups to sent the game to the ninth inning.

Ken Paschall drew a leadoff walk to begin the bottom of the seventh inning for Fayetteville. But third baseman Danny went to his knees to catch a bunt attempt by Chase Stanton and threw to first base for the double play. Schaefer then grounded out to end the inning.

Heritage jumped ahead early like it did on Monday when Cooper Mann clubbed a two-run home run in the first inning of an eventual 7-2 victory over the Bulldogs. But Fayetteville came right back and scored four runs in the bottom of the first Tuesday after Heritage jumped ahead 3-0 to begin the game.

The game was tied at 4-4 and 7-7 before Fayetteville went ahead in the 12th.

“We just didn’t play well enough. It hurts right now, but everything they set out to accomplish is in front of them.”

Rogers Heritage Coach Brian Walker