SPRINGDALE — Certain players just have the look.
A twinkle of the eye, a confident march to the plate. Whatever the intangible “it” factor is comprised of, James Glunt has plenty.
The St. Louis Rawlings Wheeler standout gave Springdale-based Northwest Arkansas team a close-up view of his skill set Thursday in an 8-7 win during pool play of the Premier Baseball National Sophomore Championship at the Tyson Sports Complex.
The Northwest Arkansas team also fell 3-0 to Houston Kyle Chapman later in the day and finished pool play 0-3. It will now drop into pool play in the consolation bracket.
Glunt, who played catcher and first base, went 4-for-4 with two doubles and a triple. He also showed off his speed by stealing third base during a fifth-inning rally that helped Rawlings overcome a two-run deficit.
“James did a great job for us today and he has been heating up at the plate for a while,” Rawlings coach Dave Wheeler said. “He works hard and it pays with his play on the field. Clearly he was seeing the ball well at the plate today and we just hope he can keep swinging the bat this way for the rest of this tournament.”
The Northwest Arkansas team, which was called Physicians Specialty Hospital in the Ozark Wood/Metal Bat League and is made up of players from Springdale Har-Ber High, showed plenty of offense as well. The Wildcats posted four runs in the bottom of the first inning and finished with nine hits.
Brandon Jansen (2-for-5) led off the first inning with a double and Justin Cox highlighted the inning with a three-run triple.
Rawlings came back to tie the score at 4 in the third inning, after Glunt tripled to set up an RBI single by Jackson Burns (2-for-3).
There were five lead changes in the game.
“Right now, we aren’t concerned with wins and losses we are just trying to get better by playing the best competition we can,” Springdale coach Randy Salsbury said. “These young guys are learning a lot and that’s all I can ask. Today, I saw several positive things, but the one thing that hurt us was not holding runners on base and not scoring them when we had the chances.”
Springdale took a 6-5 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning on an RBI double by Preston Pianalto. It was the second RBI double of the game for Pianalto, who finished 2-for-3.
Rawlings responded on their next at-bat and once again it was Glunt who initiated the rally. He blasted a leadoff double off the center field fence and later scored on an error.
Patrick Hoff picked up the win in relief for Rawlings. Hoff took over for starter Griffin Goodrich in the third inning, scattering four hits over four innings of work.
“When you get into tournaments like this with so many great offensive teams you know you’re going to have to put runs on the board to win,” Wheeler said. “There aren’t many 2-1 type games in this league, so whenever you can have a pitcher come in and string some scoreless innings together like we had today, it really helps.”
Premier Baseball Championship
ST. LOUIS RAWLINGS 8
NORTHWEST ARKANSAS 7
St. Louis 122 030 0 — 8 13 0
Springdale 401 200 0 — 7 9 2
Goodrich, Hoff (3) and Glunt, Goodrich (5); Lee, Jaro (4), Thompson (6), Rice (7) and Rassmussin. W — Hoff. L — Jaro.