PRAIRIE GROVE -- The Tigers spent the latter part of the opening week of baseball season competing in the second annual Dugan Ward Memorial tournament held at Ashdown March 2-4.
In the tournament, Prairie Grove got past Genoa Central (8-2) before losing (9-8) to Ashdown. The Tigers rebounded with a 10-5 win over Arkadelphia to go 3-1 in the tournament. Prairie Grove coach Chris Mileham is starting to put his stamp on the program and feels confident that the team is meshing together as a unit.
"I've had the pleasure of coaching this team for close to a hundred games now, counting last spring and summer," Mileham said. "This is definitely my team now and my program and we're moving forward in that direction and they've boughten in, and we've got 20 guys on the same page this year. I'll be danged if anything changes that."
Prairie Grove 9, Booneville 8
Cole Speed's groundout drove in Austin Jentzsch with the winning run as Prairie Grove scored twice in the bottom of the seventh inning and edged Booneville, 9-8, on March 3. The Tigers scored both runs in the seventh with only one hit. Clay Fidler started the inning by reaching on an error, then Jentzsch was hit by a pitch. Silas Myane later singled to drive in Fidler before Speed's grounder scored Jentzsch and ended the game. Myane and Fidler each drove in two runs, while Reed Orr pitched 3.2 innings of one-hit baseball and picked up the win in relief.
Prairie Grove 8, Genoa Central 2
Genoa Central scored 2 runs to jump out to a 2-0 first inning lead without a hit on March 2. Mason Sellers and Logan Martin both made contact to drive in runs after walks for the Dragons.
Prairie Grove got one run across in the third, then brought 7 more home in the fifth to take an 8-2 win. Junior Chase Wade started on the mound for the Tigers. He lasted two innings, yielding 2 runs on 4 walks with 3 strikeouts. Orr came on in relief, pitching 5 stingy innings and giving up only one hit and no runs and striking out five.
Orr (1 of 4 with 4 RBIs) homered off Dylan Rushing, whose stint on the mound was for a third of an inning. That span proved disastrous for Genoa Central as the Tigers scored 5 runs on 3 hits. Fidler (2 of 4, double), Wade and Jadin Higgins each drove in a run.
Ashdown 9, Prairie Grove 8
The second inning proved to be Prairie Grove's undoing in the March 3 one-run loss to Ashdown. The Tigers saw a 2-0 lead vanish with Ashdown producing 4 runs to take the lead. The Tigers chipped away at the deficit, scoring a run in the third and another in the top of the fifth to tie the game, at 4-4. Ashdown responded with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth to recapture the lead, at 6-4. Prairie Grove surged ahead, 8-6, with a 4-run sixth inning, but Ashdown tied the game with 2 runs in the bottom of the sixth and eked out a win with a run in the seventh.
Eight different Tigers pitched in the game. Collectively, they allowed 9 runs on 6 hits with 6 walks and a base on balls against 2 strikeouts. Ashdown also used several pitchers, giving up 4 earned runs and 5 base on balls, but getting more strikeouts (7). Both teams committed 5 errors. Orr had 2 RBIs with Speed, Wade and sophomore Couper Allen adding one apiece.
Prairie Grove 10, Arkadelphia 5
The Tigers scored 3 runs in the top of the first inning on March 4, only to have Arkadelphia answer with 2 in the bottom of the first. Each team scored a run in the second inning before Prairie Grove gained some separation with 2 runs in the third and 3 more in the fourth. The Tigers added another in the top of the fifth to move ahead, 10-3. Although the Badgers got 2 runs in the bottom of the fifth, they weren't able to close the gap.
Fidler went the distance on the mound for Prairie Grove, allowing 5 runs on 4 hits with 2 strikeouts and 3 base on balls. Nobody struck out for the Tigers. Sophomore Drew Cates was handy with the stick, going 4 for 4 with a double and 3 runs batted in. Speed was 2 for 2 with 2 RBIs. Fidler, senior Michael Hutsell (1 for 1), Myane, Orr and Wade all drove in a run.
Conference Outlook
Mileham wasn't going to make any predictions about league play this early in the season.
"It's way too early to tell," Mileham said. "With the new teams in the conference and some of the box scores I've seen, I think everyone's probably not knowing what to expect compared to the traditional how it goes. I think there's going to be a lot of parity in the league this year."
Sports on 03/22/2017