PRAIRIE GROVE -- For the second weekend in a row, Prairie Grove's baseball team gained the upper hand in a first-round must-win post-season tournament beating Clinton, 10-1, on Saturday.
Clinton came in as the No. 2 seed from the 4A-7, while Prairie Grove entered the 4A North Regional at Dover as the No. 3 seed from the 4A-1. Playing in rain became a necessity with the tournament pushed back a day from the planned Friday start due to weather and the Tigers proved their regular season was no fluke when they surpassed several clubs with more experienced rosters to finish third in the 4A-1 regular season standings. Half of Prairie Grove's 10 runs came on two hits. Logan Gragg belted a 3-run homer accounting for 5 RBIs on the day and Reed Orr blasted a 2-run shot out of the ballpark as part of his 4 RBI effort.
With the victory, Prairie Grove has now qualified for the state baseball tournament six years running and every year except for coach Mitch Cameron's inaugural season. The Tigers were expected to take on Pea Ridge on Monday and the weather disruptions may have played to their advantage. Pea Ridge's first-round Regional game against tournament host, Dover, got underway on Friday, then was suspended as storms moved into the River Valley. Twenty-seven hours after the umpire first yelled, "Play ball," the contest concluded with the Blackhawks taking a 7-5 win over Dover. How much that may have factored into Monday's scheduled Regional semifinal contest with the Tigers was still unknown as of press time.
HUNTSVILLE -- A trio of Tigers produced 9 runs batted in fueling the Prairie Grove offense in a 12-2 quarterfinal win at the District baseball tournament on May 1.
Prairie Grove staged a comeback overcoming an early 2-1 deficit to defeat the Bobcats at the 4A-1 baseball tournament to secure a Regional berth at Huntsville. Gavin Heltemes went 3 for 3 with 2 RBIs, Gragg went 2 of 3 with 4 RBIs, and Clay Fiddler went 3 of 3 with 3 RBIs. Cameron said those three guys got things done for the Tigers with their bats and were supported by their teammates in the lineup.
"Other guys found ways to get on base," Cameron said. "Logan had a no-hitter outside of the first inning. We had to get that one to get to Regionals. The goal is to get to Regional and we did a good job of that."
"Cole Speed hit a big double for us to take the lead and we just kind of rolled from there," Cameron said.
The Tiger rally began in the bottom of the third inning. Heltemes led off by singling into left field. Then with Isaac Disney up, Heltemes went to second on a passed ball and reached third on a ground out. Gragg plated him with a single up the middle to tie the game at 2-2, then retired the Bobcats in order in the top of the fourth with a pair of strikeouts.
With one out, Speed caught an 0-2 pitch and sent it into the outfield bringing in Evan Rush with the go-ahead run. Rush drew a leadoff walk to start the inning. After a second out, Heltemes took a called strike one, then belted a double RBI. Disney got on with a walk bringing up Gragg, who hit a well-placed 2-run double that landed fair and went foul alongside the first-base line in an empty corner. No Bobcat was close enough to make a play and Prairie Grove seized a 6-2 lead. Orr walked and Berryville switched pitchers to no avail. Fiddler hit a double past a diving third baseman scoring one more Tiger run and Prairie Grove owned a 7-2 advantage.
Gragg struck out 9 Bobcats in five innings and was extremely effective beyond difficulties in the first when the Bobcats scored 2 runs. Following their 5 run burst in the fourth when 10 Tigers stepped to the plate, Prairie Grove added 5 runs in the fifth to end the game early with a 12-2 victory.
Sports on 05/13/2015