ROGERS — Springdale Har-Ber appeared to be on the cusp of breaking open its Class 7A state baseball tournament f irst-round game against Fort Smith Southside.
But a line drive double play snuffed out a potential big inning, and a pair of Wildcat errors set the table for the Rebels’ eightrun top of the fourth that sent Har-Ber to a 12-3 fi rstround exit Thursday afternoon at Veterans Park.
Southside (17-10), the No. 6 seed out of the 7A/6AWest, will now advance to play Conway, the No. 2 seed out of the 7A/6A-Central, in the quarterfi nals at 2:30 p.m. today.
Har-Ber (19-9) scored two runs in the bottom of the third to take a 3-2 lead and had the bases loaded with still only one out. Landry Harris flied out to short left field and the runners stayed put. Collin Richardson then ripped a line drive that Southside first baseman Kody Pollard snared and stepped on the bag for a double play to end the inning.
Southside responded by sending 12 batters to the plate and scored eight runs to take command, turning a 3-2 deficit into a 10-3 lead. Designated hitter Mason Edgmon had a single and double and drove in two runs in the big fourth inning for the Rebels.
Har-Ber also helped out the Rebels with back-toback errors on sacrifice bunt attempts in the fourth.
Edgmon, Tanner Wiley and Jordan Lawrence f inished with two hits apiece for Southside. No Har-Ber player had more than one hit, but leadoff man Hunter Patrick was 1-for-2 with a single and scored two runs. Gus Vitt also had an RBI-single.
Har-Ber coach Randy Salsbury came away disappointed with the way the Wildcats’ season ended.
“At this point with it being the state tournament, you feel like as a coach you let your guys down,” Salsbury said. “We didn’t play our ‘A’ game and we didn’t compete well. Southside beat us, out-played us in every way. It was their day and it wasn’t ours.”
Southside 020 811 0 — 12 9 0 Har-Ber 102 000 0 — 3 5 3
Harpenau, Lovvorn (7) and Clark; Jaro, Daniels (4), Williamson (5),
Williams (5) and Rasmussen. W -
Harpenau, 2-1. L - Jaro, 6-2.