GENTRY -- Senior Garrett Blankenship and the rest of the Lincoln Wolves baseball team left everything on the field, but still came up short in a season-ending, 3-2 loss against Gravette in the 4A-1 District Tournament on April 28.
Blankenship allowed three runs on three hits while striking out one and walking two. He benefitted from the Wolves' defense playing its first error-free game of a two-win season.
"It's easily the best game we've played all year," Blankenship said. "Everybody was up in the dugout and having fun. We made all the plays on defense, so they were really helping me out.
"That's why they only had three hits. They hit the ball hard, but we made the plays behind me."
Second-year coach Justin Bounds agreed.
"From start to finish, that was absolutely the best game we've played all year," Bounds said. "We came here earlier in the year and we got 10-run [ruled] twice [during a tournament.], but we came to play today."
The eight-seeded Wolves even were knocking on the door of upsetting the fifth-seeded Lions after tying the score at 2-all in the top of the sixth inning. Tristan Young had an RBI single to score Toby Rose and Young later scored on an error.
But Gravette's Kilby Roberts hit an RBI single in the bottom half of the inning to foil the upset attempt and create the final margin.
The tight loss was even tougher to swallow.
"We obviously have some experience losing by 10 [runs] this year, but it's a lot harder losing by one or two than it is by eight or nine," Blankenship said.
The Wolves had built up confidence after Balnkenship had pitched them to their second win of the season, an 8-4 win against Oaks-Mission, Okla., on April 25. They also gave Elkins a run for its money with a late rally in an 8-6 loss against Elkins the following day.
"You look at the last two weeks, and other than Prairie Grove, I don't think anybody 10 runed us," Bounds said. "It's improvement. Earlier in the year, it was pretty rough.
"We only lose three seniors and have several really good and experienced underclassmen returning for us [next season,] so the future is bright."
Sports on 05/04/2016