Loaded Bases Cornerstone Of Tiger Victory

PRAIRIE GROVE BASEBALL BEATS SHILOH 7-0

PRAIRIE GROVE — Any victory over Shiloh Christian in baseball stands out among 4A-1 teams as a quality win and Prairie Grove opened the conference season by shutting out the Saints 7-0.

The young Tigers sent out a wake up call to the rest of the league on Tuesday, March 15, that they had better take Prairie Grove for real.

Junior Ryder Orr pitched a complete-game shutout for Prairie Grove (5-2, 1-0). The Tigers got ahead early and Orr made that hold up. Davis Stephens went 2-for-2, scoring a pair of runs for the Tigers while Tate Benoit and Jackson Beare contribued two RBIs apiece.

“Ryder came out and threw an unbelievable job. I don’t know that he had any walks. He just threw tons of strikes and when you can do that you give yourself a chance. Now, when you do that you also got to play great defense and that was something we did a great job of tonight. We made routine plays and when you can make routine ground balls and get the outs you give yourself a chance. That’s what we did tonight,” said Prairie Grove coach Mitch Cameron.

The Saints got multiple hits from Alex Patrick, Colby O’Leary and Graham Jones but couldn’t score and fell to 1-4 overall and 0-1 in the 4A-1.

“We just show up and we play. We’re just trying to get better. We’re young. We have two or three freshmen starting and a couple of sophomores. You know, we’re just trying to figure out who we are,” Cameron said.

In the first inning Shiloh banged out three consecutive hits to load the bases with no outs, but Prairie Grove got three outs without the Saints scoring a run which Cameron said became the cornerstone of the Tiger’s win.

“That momentum shift there was huge, to be able to keep them from scoring that first inning and then we come back and we score a run,” Cameron said.

Prairie Grove’s lineup showed a hit, followed by a strike out, reaching on an error and a fly out and then a strike out getting 5 batters to the plate and finding a way to take the lead.

“We didn’t do anything spectacular but we were able to get the ball in the dirt, we stole a base, we score on a passed ball. We did some things base- running wise the first two innings to score some runs and so we did all the little things that you’re supposed to be able to do well which is the reason why we were able to win,” Cameron said.

Cameron praised the play of Davis Stephens doing a great job base running along with contributions from Connor Hubbs and Tate Benoit.

Stephens was 1 for 2, but he also was hit by a pitch and drew a walk, and the one time he got out impressed his coach making contact that Cameron described as “a missile to the center fielder.”

“There was four or five of them, we had seven hard contacts tonight and when we look at those, we don’t look at hits, we look at that, and so when you can do those things we’re just proud of our guys for being able to [make contact],” Cameron said.

The win came on the heels of a pair of losses at a tournament in Nashville over the previous weekend.

“We went down to Nashville and we lost two, but freshmen had some nerves and so as we continue to play our guys continue to get better and to be 1-0 [in the conference], to beat a team like Shiloh it’s exciting to start off that way,” Cameron said.

The Tigers lost 3-2 to a Mayflower team in a game that Cameron feels they should have won. Prairie Grove recorded 12 hard contacts but made a couple of defensive mistakes, something Cameron chalks up to nerves.

The Tigers beat Warren 8-3 and lost 6-3 to Redwater, Tex.

“Both Ryder and Hubbs threw really well. Jaxon threw well down there. All went seven innings. We just didn’t score enough runs to win those games,” Cameron said.

Prairie Grove beat Paris 10-6 on March 9 then went to Kansas, Okla. on March 10 and got a 10-0 win in 5 innings. The Tigers were 5-2 coming into a spring break tournament in Florida.

“We’re excited about ourselves. We’re learning how to play defense, we’re not making errors. We’ve got guys coming in and out trying to figure out what the puzzle is and I feel we’re settling on that and that’s exciting as we move forward,” Cameron said.