Van Buren Pointers wrap up third seed at state tourney

The Van Buren Pointers made their prom dates wait a little bit on Saturday. Van Buren was forced to a decisive second game of the make-up doubleheader but responded with a big crooked number in the second inning in an 8-2 win over Bentonville at Iverson Riggs Field at the Field of Dreams. Van Buren (20-5, 10-4) earned the third seed from the 7A-West for next week’s Class 7A state tournament and will play Northside, the sixth seed from the 7A-Central, on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. at Burns Park in North Little Rock. Bentonville (15-10, 9-5) dropped to the fourth seed and will play North Little Rock in the first round. Van Buren needed just a split of the doubleheader to earn the third seed and could have made the second game a moot point with a win in the first game, which began at 11 a.m., but blew a late lead and lost in extra innings. The doubleheader took five hours, 16 minutes to complete. “We felt like we gave that one away,” Van Buren head coach David Loyd said. “We felt like we had it and did some things you can’t do to win. We had to toughen up and regroup because we knew we needed to win.” In the second game, the Pointers removed most of the drama with six runs in the second inning. “We got the momentum going,” Loyd said. “We got the energy back. We had a much better effort in the second game.” Related More high school baseball They sent 10 batters to the plate and rapped out four hits in the inning to go with three walks to take control early. “We knew we needed to add on, and we were able to get another one here and there,” Loyd said. “It was good to get that one, be done and concentrate on what we need to do at the state tournament.” With one out, Ethan Rauser started the big inning with a liner to right. Bryson Patrick and Seth Humphrey walked to load the bases. Landrey Wilkerson doubled down the right-field line to plate courtesy runner Mason Patrick and Bryson Patrick for a 2-0 lead. Chase Moore followed with another two-bagger into the left-field corner to score Humphrey and Wilkerson for a 4-0 lead. Evan Jones walked, and Jackson Hurst’s hard single scored Moore before Trevor Johnson’s sacrifice fly made it 6-0 when Jones scored. Moore drove in another run with a single in the third inning to score Humphrey for a 7-1 lead and another run in the fifth inning with a triple into the gap in right center to score Bryson Patrick, who had singled to lead off the inning. Connor Johnson earned the win for Van Buren, pitching into the sixth before departing with an out. Jones finished up on the mound, striking out three in the final 1-2/3 innings. Rauser threw out four Bentonville runners trying to steal in the doubleheader, including two in the first inning of the nightcap when the Tigers had two singles. “That’s the best feeling in the world,” Rauser said. “There was a couple of instances in that one inning where I threw the guy out and the coach sent the guy right after that. I’d already thrown out a couple in the game before and I was wondering if they were going to quit or not, and they did.” He also singled to open the big six-run inning and cap the Pointers’ Senior Day at the Field of Dreams with a win. “It was a good day,” Rauser said. “This is my last time playing out here. This is where I grew up. I started over there on the T-ball fields, then kid pitch, then played on that one and now here finally. It feels good.” Bentonville 4, Van Buren 3 (8) GAME 1 — Bentonville tied the game with two runs in the top of the seventh and then won it with a single run in the eighth. Bentonville trailed 3-1 in the seventh when Hunter Hook leading off by taking a pitch off his elbow. After two strikeouts, Hook moved to second when Levi Bennett walked. Payton Allen singled to score Hook, and Bennett took third before scoring on a wild pitch to knot the score. Tyler Johnson singled with an out in the eighth, and pinch runner Sawyer Price went to second on a hard single by Sam Golden. Price then stole second and scored on an error on the throw for a 4-3 lead. Devin Hearn earned the win for Bentonville with three hitless innings of relief work. Jackson Hurst drove in two of Van Buren’s run with a sacrifice fly for a 1-0 lead in the first inning to score Landrey Wilkerson, who led off with a single and took third on a double by Chase Moore. Hurst doubled home Moore in the third inning for a 2-0 lead.

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VAN BUREN POINTERS WRAP UP THIRD SEED AT STATE TOURNEY

LELAND BARCLAY

Times Record | 5/6/2018

PHOTO CREDIT: VanBuren