Seventh inning Dramatics

Tigers Take Down Cardinals To Complete Suspended Game

BEN MADRID ENTERPRISE-LEADER Prairie Grove senior Ty Tice started against Farmington and pitched four solid innings during the Tigers’ 5-4 win over the Cardinals in an April 3 game suspended by lightening and rain, then completed last Wednesday.
BEN MADRID ENTERPRISE-LEADER Prairie Grove senior Ty Tice started against Farmington and pitched four solid innings during the Tigers’ 5-4 win over the Cardinals in an April 3 game suspended by lightening and rain, then completed last Wednesday.

PRAIRIE GROVE -- The Prairie Grove Tigers and the Farmington Cardinals added another chapter to their fierce rivalry when the two baseball squads locked horns in a 4A-1 conference showdown that took seven days to finally get in the books.

The game started on Thursday, April 3 at Prairie Grove's Rieff Park and was tied at 4-4 in the last half of the seventh inning. The Tigers, with the bases loaded and one out were on the verge of breaking the deadlock until the game was postponed due to threatening weather (lightning).

Soggy fields pushed the conclusion of the contest back a couple of more days until both teams were finally able to reconvene on Wednesday, April 9. When the squads did re-take the field, it took only three pitches for the Tigers to finally win the game after Logan Gragg belted home the game winning RBI, bringing the final score to 5-4 in Prairie Grove's favor.

With ominous clouds hanging overhead and lightning flashing toward the west, the Cardinals nursed a 4-2 lead. However, the weather held off just long enough for the Tigers to score two runs in their portion of the sixth inning which tied the score at 4-4. Had the game been called after the fifth frame and before Prairie Grove added those runs in the sixth then the Cardinals would have been declared the winner by AAA rules.

After blanking Farmington in the seventh stanza, Prairie Grove was able to load the bases with just one out, which was when the lightning struck a little too close to the field, postponing the climax until six days later, which was when lightning struck again this time in the form of Gragg's walk-off base knock.

"We put ourselves in a bad situation. We were up 4-2 in the sixth and couldn't put some pressure on them. That's a game that's going to be tight all the way through," said Farmington coach Jay Harper. "We beat them on a walk-off base hit last year, they beat us on a walk-off base hit this year. It's the way Prairie Grove/Farmington should be. Mitch [Cameron] does a great job with his kids. We put ourselves in a bad situation, the odds were against us and we didn't make the play when we had to and credit to them, they won."

Prairie Grove got on the board first when J.D. Speed tripled to the left-center gap in the bottom of the opening stanza, then trotted home after a balk called on Farmington's starting pitcher Keaton Austin (6 innings, 5 runs, 5 hits, 9 strikeouts, 4 BB) which gave the Tigers the 1-0 advantage.

The Cardinals gained the upper hand in the third frame with a pair of runs.

Tigers' starting pitcher Ty Tice (5 innings, 4 runs, 3 hits, 7 strikeouts, 3 BB, 3 HBP) walked lead-off hitter Nick Huff, then beaned Adam Ness. Both players moved into scoring position on a Hayden Sutton single to shallow left-field.

Huff then scored on a Tiger error, while Ness scurried home on a wild pitch, which put the Cardinal's up 2-1. Prairie Grove evened the contest at 2-2 in their portion of the third inning when Brandon May executed a suicide squeeze bunt which plated Spencer Kilgore who had reached earlier in the inning on a single to center-field.

Farmington doubled their run total with 2 runs in the fifth stanza. Ness led-off the inning with a single to center-field and then Tyler Gregg reached base after falling victim to another bean-ball. Ness eventually scored on a throwing error by Tice and Gregg crossed the dish on John Larabee's sacrifice fly. Prairie Grove scored the two equalizers when Gragg doubled home Dakota Hutchinson and when Derek Arguello plated D.J. Strong (running for Gragg) with a groundball that was misplayed by the Cardinal defense.

After Speed (4-1), who earned the victory on the mound by pitching the final two innings for PG, blanked the Cardinal's in the seventh stanza, it was Farmington's turn to try to thwart the Tigers' offense and send the contest into extra innings.

That plan started to unravel when with one out Tice doubled to deep center-field, followed by Nick Sugg, who bunted Tice to 3rd and was called safe at first base. Farmington elected to intentionally walk Brandon May to set-up the force out at home. Tice was gunned down at the plate on Hutchinson's fielder's choice, which then brought Gragg to the dish. With Gragg at the plate and the lightning strikes moving closer to the field, the safety of the players and the fans prompted officials to suspend play.

When the game was picked back up last Wednesday, it only took three pitches for Gragg to stroke his game winning single into right-field.

"Logan told me that he has been thinking about this situation all week," said Tigers' coach Mitch Cameron. "So I asked him how did it play out in his mind and he said, 'I get the hit every time'. I think that confidence comes from us having played so many tough games early in the season."

On offense for PG, Tice (2-2, 2B) and Gragg (2-4, 2B, 2 RBIs, 2 RS) collected half of the Tigers' 8 hits. Kilgore, Speed, Sugg and Hutchinson all added a hit apiece to the final line. For Farmington, Ness, Sutton and Flint Oxford were all 1 for 3 at the plate.

Sports on 04/16/2014