Van Buren completed its first 5A-West sweep with one of its biggest offensive nights of the season for an 8-7 win at Iverson Riggs Field at the Field of Dreams Complex.
"A sweep was big," Van Buren Coach Luke Weatherford said. "We kind of had to get a split because of where we were at, and if we could get a sweep that would put us back where we need to be for the playoffs. That was big to take two from those guys."
Van Buren (9-10, 3-5) pounded out hits in five of six innings on Tuesday and scored runs in four of the six innings.
After an 8-6 win on Monday, the Pointers had 13 hits on Tuesday and needed every last one of them.
Van Buren led 5-1 after five innings before Greenwood erupted in the sixth inning.
"We out-hit them 13-4 and you'd feel like you'd be up by quite a few runs," Weatherford said. "We made a few mistakes in the field and walked a few more guys than we should have. Credit to them, they chipped away and had the big swing to get back in the game. I'm glad we were able to bounce back from it."
The Bulldogs (11-8, 5-3) parlayed two walks, a single by Brayden Brewer and three errors into two runs before loading the bases with two outs. Sophomore catcher Ty Holt cleared them with a towering grand slam. Holt re-entered the game to hit after sitting out a half inning on defense due to taking a hard spill at first base beating out an infield grounder.
"We were not very good at the plate except for the one inning," Greenwood Coach Brandon Brewer said. "Against a team like Van Buren, they put pressure on us all game long. They scored in four of the six innings they got to hit, and we had one big inning. We never put pressure on them, and that was the difference in the game."
Holt's slam put Greenwood up, 7-5, momentarily.
"That was a big swing, took the wind out of the sails kind of a deal," Weatherford said. "We did a good job of not giving up any more and coming back the next inning and responding."
Van Buren responded in the home half of the inning.
After an out, Zac Nowotny walked, and after another out, leadoff hitter Ian Rowe singled Nowotny to second. Weston Wilcox, who was 7 for 7 in the two-day conference series, walked to load the bases.
Catcher Hudson Gardner, who failed to get a ball out of the infield his first three at-bats, drilled a single to right to score Nowotny and Rowe to tie the game at 7-7.
Truett Cazzell singled sharply up the middle for his third hit of the game to score Wilcox for the go-ahead run.
"That was key to answer right back and not have to wait until the bottom of the seventh," Weatherford said. "I was super excited to tie it. Then to go ahead and get the next hit and take the lead was big, then for Owen to come in and close it out."
Owen Weeden, struck out the side in the top of the seventh inning to earn the win.
"I just had to go out there and get a zero," Weeden said. "We were only up by one and had to strike out the side and do the job for the team."
His first strikeout was on a 3-2 count.
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