Van Buren pin Southside

Ethan Holmes made some good pitches in Tuesday afternoon's 2017 opener with the Southside Mavericks. But senior left-hander D.J. Reeves was downright nasty. Reeves tossed 3 1/3 innings of one-hit relief in his Pointers' debut as Van Buren spoiled Southside's season opener, 9-2, at Forsgren Field. The Pointers (2-0) broke the game open with five-run fifth against Southside reliever Stratton Whittington. "I thought our kids competed hard," Van Buren coach David Loyd said. "I thought our guys threw well and I thought we settled down after the first inning or two swinging the bat." Holmes allowed just three hits, all in the same inning, and struck out five. Reeves fanned five as well. "Ethan thew good and then D.J. came in and threw well," Loyd said. "We wanted to get Trevor (Johnson) some work there at the end, because he's going to pitch for us quite a bit, too. I thought everybody threw well and the guys were excited about getting out and playing." The Pointers pushed across two unearned runs in their half of the second when Mac Moody made a wild throw with two outs, allowing Johnson and Jeremiah Douglas to score the first two runs. For awhile, it looked like that would be enough for Southside starter Ryan Horn who was solid for three innings. The Mavericks quickly tied the game in their half of the inning on Weston Phillips' RBI single to center and Nick Martin's infield single. But the Pointers' Bryson Patrick legged out a two-out infield hit to deep shortstop to load the bases with two outs, and Wilkerson followed with a bloop two-run double to left to snap the tie. "He (Horn) was at like 85 pitches and that was going to be it for him," Southside coach Dale Harpenau said. "We would like to get him through five innings at 85 pitches, because we need him to be one of those guys we can can lean on a little bit." The Pointers then added to the lead with four straight hits and five runs in the fifth. Whittington was touched for four straight hits to open the Van Buren fifth, and it took a good play by Mavericks' second baseman Weston Phillips on Douglas' hard smash to keep it from being five in a row. Conner Catron's RBI double made it 5-2, and Evan Jones' two-run single extended the lead to 8-2. Wilkerson added an RBI double to account for the Pointers' final run. "Stratton's going to be fine," Harpenau said. "He elevated his stuff tonight; a lot of ground balls were hit that the next time will be hit at somebody. I thought Parker (Wright) came in and threw the ball well. "We'll take away some positives from the first game."

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Van Buren High School Athletics

VAN BUREN PIN SOUTHSIDE

KEVIN TAYLOR

Times Record | 3/1/2017

PHOTO CREDIT: Van Buren High School Athletics