FAYETTEVILLE — Several Northwest Arkansas players fueled a three-run second inning, and a North Little Rock duo slammed the door to help the Arkansas Prospects Black notch a 3-2 win over Team BC in pool play Saturday at the Mid-America 18-and-under West World Series.
Chandler Thompson got Samuel Jones to fly out to right field with the bases loaded to end the game and save it for his high school teammate Preston Oberling.
Oberling carried a 3-2 lead into the seventh and retired the leadoff man in the final inning. However, he then ran into trouble by walking the next two hitters.
Team BC, which is based in Columbia, Mo., pulled within 3-2 when Black second baseman Jacob Riggs mishandled Austin Martin’s ground ball.
Black coach Randy Salsbury said Riggs had thoughts of turning a game-ending double play but ended up not getting an out on the play.
Salsbury tried to let Oberling finish his strong start as he struck out Cody Roberts for the second out but then walked Brian Montgomery to load the bases. That’s when he’d seen enough.
“He pitched well,” Salsbury said. “He got hit in the shin early in the game then lost a contact. We were joking with him he was a one-eyed, one-legged guy out there getting it done for us.”
Thompson, who had been playing third base, came on and retired Jones on a medium fly ball.
Team BC coach Rusty Bourg, who played baseball at Arkansas State in the late 1960s and is a member of the ASU Hall of Honor, said his team just struggled to get key hits.
“Proud of the way we hung in there; we just didn’t do anything offensively,” Bourg said. “We didn’t move runners. That’s something we’ve been trying to work on the past few weeks. I like to give them one swing, but we’re just not getting it done.”
Black, which consists of mainly 16-year-olds from Northwest and central Arkansas, scored all of its runs in the second, including two with two outs.
Brett Gentz of Rogers High hammered a double into the left-center field gap to score Rogers teammate Brett D’Amico, who was running on the play from first to give the Arkansas team a 1-0 lead.
Matt Garrison, who plays for Salsbury at Springdale Har-Ber, drove in D’Amico with a two-out infield single deep into the hole at shortstop. Garrison then used his speed to manufacture what turned out to be the game-winning run.
Garrison stole second, then stole third and scored when the throw from the catcher sailed into left field for a 3-0 lead.
ARKANSAS PROSPECT BLACK 3, TEAM BC 2
Team BC 001 000 1 — 2 5 1
Black 030 000 x — 3 4 2
Huth, Roberts (6) and Crowley; Oberling, Thompson (7) and Colson. W-Oberling. L-Huth. Sv-Thompson.