Barmore dominates on mound, Rams shutout Blue Devils
Harrison Barmore held a no-hitter into the top of the fourth inning, helping lead Lakeside to a 22-0 five-inning win over West Memphis at Babe Ruth Field at Majestic Park Thursday night.
Barmore conceeded a single by West Memphis’ Hayden Roeder in the inning, finishing with 5 strikeouts with the hit and 1 walk through 4 innings.
“He struggled a little bit early,” Lakeside head coach Garrett Bock said. “I thought his pitch count got up, but overall he did a really good job. Harrison always competes when he’s on the mound. That’s what we can bank on with him. He’s usually a pretty good strike thrower, and I couldn’t be more proud of Harrison and what he’s had to battle through this year overall.”
Lakeside (7-3) outhit the Blue Devils 14-1, and Barmore did not have to dig deep into his pitch mix to get outs.
“I think he just got in a rhythm,” West Memphis head coach Brooks Balisterri said. “Honestly, I thought my hitters at times were ready to hit. We’ve been struggling taking a lot of fast balls for strikes this year, especially in some advantage counts not really getting our best swing off. We put the ball in play, and they made plays behind him. … He was just comfortable. He was beating us with his fastball. He didn’t really have to throw any other pitch.”
While Barmore had a great outing on the mound, the Blue Devils (1-7) struggled to throw strikes. The Rams drew 13 walks and were hit by pitches five times.
Roeder started the game for West Memphis and gave up 4 walks, 1 hit and 2 runs before being taken out of the game early in the first inning.
“It starts on the mound,” Balisterri said. “We played a tough game last night. We threw two of our better arms, but I threw a guy that I thought would come and compete and give us a chance to win. We just couldn’t throw strikes. At the end of the day, I don’t care who you’re playing, if you don’t throw strikes, it’s tough to play defense behind them. It just starts on the bump.”
Chace Tittle started the bottom of the first inning with a walk, and Grady Ohman came in to pinch run for the lead off man. Ohman stole second before tagging to third on a fly ball and eventually scored on a single from Brennan Browning.
Leading 1-0, Browning crossed the plate after a bases-loaded walk. Jordan House then came into pitch for the Blue Devils and faced Ethan Rogers as his first batter. Rogers hit a double to right field that scored Brockton Prince and Joseph Newman for a 4-0 lead.
Brady Arnold added to Lakeside’s advantage when his sacrifice fly drove in Jacob Hermosillo, and Ben Jennings singled to plate Rogers.
The Rams held a 10-0 edge later in the first inning when Barmore hit a ground ball to second base. In what looked like a routine play, the Blue Devil first baseman was not able to scoop the throw, and Prince scored another run on the play.
During the following at-bat, Rogers came up just shy of a home run when he launched a ball that hit off the left field wall. The junior ended up with a double, and Joseph Newman scored.
Jennings grounded out to finally end the first inning, but the Rams had essentially put the contest away already with a 12-0 lead.
“They worked our approach that we were going to work,” Bock said. “We had a certain approach that we wanted them to work, and they did exactly what we told them to do, so I couldn’t be more proud of that.”
Tittle got hit with a pitch to start the second inning, and Adrian Aguirre hit a rocket between the third baseman and shortstop. The Blue Devils’ third baseman made a diving stop but could not get the ball to first base in time as a pinch-running Ohman ended up safe at second and Aguirre safe at first.
During the following at-bat, a passed ball advanced the pair to the back side of the diamond before Browning hit a single into the gap to score Ohman. Prince then drove in Aguirre with a grounder to the shortstop, reaching safely as Browning was thrown out at second on a fielder’s choice.
The Rams scored their final run of the second inning when Prince advanced to second and third on passed balls, and Newman plated Prince with a single to left field for a 15-0 lead.
Balisterri said his team played a tough Jonesboro team earlier in the season and competed well against the Hurricane. However, the Blue Devils struggled to be competitive against the Rams.
“We gave them pretty much all of (their runs),” he said. “This is my first year here, and we’re a young team. They haven’t had a whole lot of success in the past years. … I told them, ‘Just compete. If they beat us, make them beat us.’ We didn’t do that. We just gave it to them.”
The Rams were able to rotate many players into the game and gave multiple players early-season experience in the batter’s box and on the field.
Lakeside scored four runs in the third inning and three runs in the fourth to set the final. Many of the contributions in those innings came from non-starters.
“It’s very important,” Bock said. “Every one of these kids works the same amount for what we have them do. When they got their chance to play, they did a really good job of performing.”
Hudson Shafto came into pitch for Lakeside in the top of the fifth inning and forced a lineout before getting two batters to strikeout looking to end the contest.
Drew Jenkins was one of only three batters to get on base for the Blue Devils all game when he walked into the final inning between the lineout and the two strikeouts.
“The last inning I told our guys, ‘Let’s get something out of these at-bats,’” Balisterri said. “You can’t take an at-bat for granted. You can’t take a ground ball for granted. You can’t take an inning on the bump for granted. Especially for a team like us. We’ve got to have reps. We’re young.”
After Lakeside picked up a 4-1 loss to El Dorado and a 5-4 loss to Lake Hamilton last week, the big win over West Memphis was much needed.
“I thought they came out ready to play,” Bock said. “We struggled last week. The kids really came out and did what we needed to do. It started all in our preparation earlier this week and before the game today.”