PRAIRIE GROVE -- A 5-run explosion in the bottom of the second inning jump-started Prairie Grove (7-3. 2-0) en route to a 12-3 win over Gravette (7-1, 1-1) on Thursday in 4A-1 baseball.
The Tigers chased Gravette starter Avery Burrow, who gave up a leadoff single to Reed Orr and a bunt single to Clay Fidler to start the second inning. Both runners advanced on a ground-out bringing up Evan Rush, who drove in the game's first run on an 0-1 pitch. Sam Dodd then came to the plate with the situation repeated, runners at the corners with one out, and smacked an RBI single as did the next batter, Isaac Disney.
After a pitching change, the Tigers built on their 3-0 lead with Gavin Heltemes' sacrifice fly sending a runner to third. Patrick Perdue got ahead of Gravette reliever Jackson Soule 2-0 when a Lion throw went past second base allowing two more runs to score for a 5-0 Prairie Grove lead.
In the top of the fourth Gravette loaded the bases and scored a pair of runs with two outs after Prairie Grove starter Logan Gragg issued consecutive walks and Bryce Moorman drilled a shot past third. The Tigers held the third runner and Gragg worked his way out of trouble with a strikeout.
"There in that one inning, he was kind of out of breath. He was kind of out of rhythm so I went out there and calmed him down and he got out of the inning," said Prairie Grove coach Mitch Cameron. "He located really, really well today."
Gragg (4-0) gave up a triple to Soule, who scored on Cody Fields' RBI single in the top of the fifth. Gragg was solid the rest of the way and pitched all seven innings. With their lead narrowed to 5-3 Prairie Grove offered more run support in the bottom of the fifth. For the second time in the contest, a ground-out to the Gravette third baseman held runners while recording an out.
"To us that's a failed execution," Cameron said, explaining he instructed his runners to stay on base in balls to the corners. "I'd rather take the out at first and keep the runner at third."
"Now, we have two outs and Clay Fidler hits a big two-out double in the gap. That was a big hit," Cameron said, of Fidler's 2 RBI blast he turned into a triple when Gravette's center fielder fell down. Cole Speed plated Fidler with a hit up the middle just beyond the reach of a diving second baseman and Prairie Grove upped their lead to 8-3.
The Tigers added four more runs in the sixth. With the bases loaded, Perdue singled to drive in 2 runs and Orr brought home 2 more with a double. With the win Prairie Grove improved to 7-3 overall and 2-0 in conference going into Monday's contest with Shiloh Christian.
"It's a big first two weeks for us coming out of spring break and to swing it like we did today. I like the way we swung the bats like we did," Cameron said. "Logan had one bad inning, but other than that, I was very pleased with the job he did on the mound."
After playing four games in three days last week, Prairie Grove has six scheduled over a 5-day stretch this week.
Sports on 04/08/2015