Van Buren squeezes out close win against Har-Ber

Another game between Van Buren and Springdale Har-Ber, and another game that went down to the very end. Van Buren earned a split of the home-and-away 6A-West series with a 3-1 win on Tuesday night at Iverson Riggs Field at the Field of Dreams. The Pointers (14-9, 4-6) stayed in the jumbled up standings with two-game home-and-away series remaining with Bentonville West and Springdale the next two weeks. “We needed that one after yesterday,” Van Buren head coach David Loyd said. ’We always have good games against these games, they’re always close. It seems like they’re all one-run games or two-run games. It sure was good to get that one. It puts us in a little better position for what’s coming up.” Har-Ber won, 2-1, on Monday. The defending state champions also won a one-run game with a seventh-inning rally in the semifinals of the state tournament last year after a close game in conference play. “They do a good job,” Har-Ber head coach Ron Bradley said. “We won two close ones last year, one in conference and one in the state tournament. Yesterday, we won, 2-1. Today, it was right there in the seventh. I knew going into the season that Van Buren has a real good ball team.” Har-Ber (16-6, 5-5) stayed a game up on Van Buren with several teams stuck in the middle of the standings. “Every game is so up and down, there’s so much parity that every single game is going to be a close game,” Bradley said. “It comes down to small things like not getting that two-out hit.” Loyd changed his lineup a little and also handed the ball to senior Landrey Wilkerson for his first conference start of the season on the mound. “He’s very capable,” Loyd said. “He’s started for us before during the year. We’ve got to have him, we’ve got to have them all. I just wanted to see how they’d react against a lefty. I don’t think they’ve seen very many. He went out and pitched well, and gave them some problems.” Wilkerson almost didn’t make it out of the first inning, needing 17 pitches. He walked the first batter of the game, Hunter Wood, who scored on a wild pitch just three batters into the game. Har-Ber loaded the bases, but second baseman Mason Patrick started an inning-ending double play turned by Bryce Waters at short and finished by first sacker Dakota Peters. “He limited them to one run and got the double-play ball, and got out of it,” Loyd said. “It boosted his confidence I think.” Wilkerson also needed 23 pitches to get out of the second inning, mostly due to a 10-pitch walk by Mason Wood. Wilkerson pitched around that and then absolutely cruised through the final five innings, pitching to just two batters over the minimum after the second inning. “The first two was tough,” Wilkerson said. “My arm felt good, I just wasn’t hitting spots. It took me a few innings to settle in. I had never started that big of a game before.” Loyd started Wilkerson last week against Northside in a nonconference game in looking ahead for the possible key conference start. Wilkerson went the distance against Northside to earn Tuesday’s start. “Last week, coach talked about pitching and preparing against Northside,” Wilkerson said. “He thought it would be good for today. I prepped against Northside to do good today.” Wilkerson gave up a lone single in the third inning and pitched around an error in the sixth inning, which put in his stretch only twice. “At the beginning of the game, I felt comfortable in my stretch but later in the game I felt good in my full windup,” Wilkerson said. “I felt good as I settled in.” Van Buren scored twice in the fourth inning to take the lead. Peters led off with a scorching double down the line in left. An out later, he scored on Seth Humphrey’s hard double also to left. Hayden Roark, inserted into the new lineup, ripped a single to score Humphrey for the go-ahead run. “We got those doubles and got us going, got us fired up a little bit,” Loyd said. “You’ve just got to keep fighting and keep competing, and that’s what those guys did.” In the sixth, Van Buren added a run. Humphrey walked on a full-count, went to second on a single by pinch-hitter Wesley Painter before Bryce Waters also coaxed a walk on a full-count. A wild pitch with two outs allowed Humphrey to score for a 3-1 lead. “Oh my gosh,” Loyd said. “I really wasn’t expecting that, but that insurance run let us take a little bit of a breath. I think it helped him relax.” Wilkerson then retired the last three batters in Har-Ber’s order, finishing off his stellar outing with consecutive strikeouts. Wilkerson finished with exactly 100 pitches and struck out nine.

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Van Buren High School Athletics

VAN BUREN SQUEEZES OUT CLOSE WIN AGAINST HAR-BER

LELAND BARCLAY

Times Record | 4/17/2019

PHOTO CREDIT: Aaron Shaffer