Cobras take regional win, advance
MALVERN — Fountain Lake earned its first regional win in 32 years Friday afternoon at Malvern’s Morrison Park as the Cobras held off the Camden Fairview Cardinals 3-2 in extra innings in the first round of the 4A-South Regional.
“As far as I know, we’ve never made it,” said Cobras head coach Justin McArthur. “Started baseball in the spring of 1990, and this is the first time that we qualified, not as an automatic qualifier. So it’s special, you know. It’s really special.”
Fountain Lake pitcher Wesley Campbell made the most of his time on the mound, facing 28 batters in 6 2/3 innings, striking out 13 in what will be his only appearance in the regional. He allowed 2 earned runs off 4 hits, 2 walks and 2 hit batters while only throwing a single wild pitch.
With the game tied after Camden Fairview’s Jaxson Bradshaw scored on an RBI single, Campbell was pulled, and Preston Riley took to the mound. The senior beaned his first batter before Arkansas commit Martavious Thomas flew out to left field to go into the bottom of the inning.
Abe Rose stepped up in the bottom of the seventh with two outs and hit a grounder up the middle to reach, but Kadin Hilton hit a fly ball that landed easily in the left fielder’s glove to force the teams into the eighth inning.
Riley retired Cardinal starting pitcher Logan Robertson on five pitches before Carson McKinney and Colton Dewoody hit grounders directly to the second baseman for the easy out and put the Cardinals on defense.
After a walk by Hayden Cotten, Campbell flew out to center field, and Evan East was walked. Colt Carden was intentionally walked to load the bases, and Riley hit into a fielder’s choice that saw shortstop Thomas get the ball to the plate to oust Cotten.
“It worked out on the first pitch, but then the second time it didn’t,” Cardinals head coach Troy Keith said. “So, yeah, I don’t have any regrets on that.”
Cardinal pitcher Dayson Connelly then fired a pitch past catcher McKinney for a passed ball that allowed East to score the game-winning run.
“I felt it in my mind, you know, and you’d like being in that situation offensively be
cause it opens up so many more holes,” McArthur said of the bases-loaded situation. “Obviously the kid at shortstop committed to Arkansas or signed with them, (Thomas) he’s got a heck of an arm, and our kid ain’t the most fleet of foot, and he made a great throw to get him right there. But at the end of the day, you know, we were able to scratch that run across.”
The Cobras got things going early after Campbell retired the Cardinals in the top of the first. With one out, Kadin Hilton reached on an error by the second baseman that allowed him to stretch to second before Cotten hit an RBI double.
Campbell then hit a fly ball to right field that fell just away from the glove of the right fielder, allowing Cotten to score for the 2-0 lead.
The score did not change until the top of the third as Bradshaw hit a fly ball deep to center field that Hilton could not snag, hurrying to third. A.J. Alsobrook hit a sacrifice fly to right to plate the third baseman to cut the spread to 2-1.
“We had a lot of bad luck, and in baseball that’ll come back to haunt you,” McArthur said. “We hit — Hilton in a ball as hard as he could into this corner, Wesley hit a ball as hard as he could in the center. And they hit it right at them, and that’s just the game. And I was thinking, ‘Man, it might not be our night,’ but the man upstairs had other plans for us.”
The Cardinals loaded the bases in the top of the fourth after an error and two hit batters, but Campbell dealt out three straight strikeouts to get out of the fix.
“We had opportunities earlier to get across a few runs, but we missed out on that opportunity,” Keith said. “But it just — a game like that just can go either way.”
Riley hit 1 batter while striking out 1 in his 1 1/3 inning appearance to pick up the win.
“I did feel good about it with coming in with Preston because you know, he’s a solid number two,” McArthur said. “He’s not just a decent number two, so I thought that aspect of it was really going to help us out.”
Abe Rose and Campbell led the Cobras at the plate with a pair of hits each, Campbell with 1 RBI. Cotten had the team’s only extra-base hit with an RBI double.
Robertson got the start for the Cardinals, giving up 2 runs, 1 earned, off 6 hits and 3 walks in 6 2/3 innings while fanning 8. Michael Suell stepped up in relief, giving up an unearned run off 2 walks in his partial inning, and Dayson Connelly picked up the loss with 2 walks.
Alsobrook, Robertson, Bradshaw and Landon Morgan each got a hit for the Cardinals, Alsobrook with 2 RBIs, Robertson with a double and Bradshaw with a triple.
The Cobras will face Monticello today at 11 a.m. at Malvern in the second round of the tournament. A loss will put them in the 4 p.m. third-place game while a win will put them in the championship game at 6:30 p.m.