Big inning, Jones’ pitching spark HSV juniors

Lakeside hurt itself with off- the- mark pitching, and Hot Springs Village’s Andrew Barber and Tyler Robertson deepened the Rams’ pain.

Barber, playing only his third game of the American Legion season, and Robertson had all three hits in HSV’s eight- run second inning, their team benefiting from 13 free passes in an 11- 2, five- inning Junior win Thursday night at Lakeside.

The speedy but at- lessthan- full- speed Barber bunted for two singles and Robertson had a two- run single against the Rams’ Austin Softley and

Hayden Lindsey. Barber, a starting all- Garland County high- school second baseman as a Fountain Lake junior who was out with a groin injury until Wednesday’s Junior/ AA doubleheader at Bryant, drove in a run with his second bunt.

“He’s kind of got to bunt right now because he’s got that groin issue,” HSV coach Justin Gregory said. “We were squeezing with two outs and he was able to get it down. ... He makes things happen. He made a difference in the AA ( 10- 8 win over Bryant) playing second base and getting to balls other people couldn’t. It’s definitely good to have him back.”

After lining out softly to first base with a runner on third in his first at- bat, Robertson gave HSV ( 2- 4) a 4- 0 lead with a drive to left- center field on a 1- 2 pitch, Colby Spoon and pitcher Cole Jones scoring.

“He swung bad that first time. He pulled his bands back,” Gregory said of Robertson, who added an RBI ground ball in a threerun fourth. “He adjusted with two strikes and hit that line drive. It’s really good to see when you can get a guy to adjust at the plate.”

Jones made the big lead stand up, throwing a three- hit complete game.

Tyler Dauber had a two- run single in the fourth. Dauber went 2- for- 2 with a sacrifice, and Barber 2- for- 4 to lead a seven- hit at- tack. Robertson, Jones and King each scored twice.

Softley hit James King with a pitch to start the second, and walked Spoon and Jones ahead of Robertson’s single. Dylan Anderson and ( after Lindsey relieved) Sean McKneely walked with the bases loaded and Spoon was hit by a pitch to force in the inning’s last run.

Softley and Lindsey combined to walk nine and hit three batters in four innings.

“Both of those guys are guys that have throw well for us,” Lakeside coach Andy Runyan said. “When you put 13 guys on without them having to swing the bat, that’s a recipe for disaster — and that’s what tonight was.”

HSV got a much more effective outing from Jones, who allowed one hit — Chandler Overton’s fly- ball single — and no walks while hitting one batter in the first three innings. Lakeside ( 6- 7) scored in the second on Jonathan Barmore’s sacrifice fly, but Jones pitched around two walks to start the third by striking out the next three Rams.

“He did a good job of hitting his spots and getting us out on our front foot with his breaking pitch,” Runyan said. “We were out in front all day. I feel like our batters didn’t adjust, and ( Jones) did a good job of exploiting that.”

Jones, an incomlng Fountain Lake sopho- more, gave up fifth- inning doubles to Eric Larson and Dylan Carpenter ( RBI), ending the game under the eight- run rule by retiring Overton on a grounder to shortstop. He struck out eight and walked four.

“His slider was working good,” Gregory said. “When you get your slider to cut the inside of the plate you’re going to handcuff a lot of people. That’s what he did.”

With the Zone 4 tournament starting July 6 at Sheridan, getting five innings from Jones was an HSV goal.

“These kids are used to going two or three innings,” Gregory said, “but it’s time to see if they can chew some innings up. I was worried about our pitching tonight, and he took that issue away from us.”

• Lakeside added the noon, nine- inning Saturday home game against Pine Bluff after its scheduled night doubleheader against Genoa Central was canceled at the latter’s request.

The junior Rams host the inaugural Ryan White Memorial Tournament starting Thursday. The eight- team field includes Benton Everett GMC, Benton Sports Shop, Bryant, two Cabot squads, Sheridan and Texarkana.