BRYANT -- Kyle Stephens would not brag about his effort on the mound, nor would he congratulate himself for his prowess at the plate. The 6-2 right-hander's performance on a steamy Sunday afternoon spoke for itself.
Stephens went 5 for 5 and worked the final 7 2/3 innings from the mound without allowing a run in leading Mountain Home Lockerroom to a 10-5 come-from-behind victory over the Texarkana Razorbacks in the American Legion AAA State Tournament semifinal at Bryant High School.
Mountain Home (22-12) scored five runs in the eighth inning to take control of what had been a well-played game for most of the afternoon.
"I liked our defense actually better than my pitching or hitting," said Stephens, attempting to deflect some of the attention away from himself.
Mountain Home Manager Lester White said Stephens should not have been so humble.
"He's a gamer," said White, who won his 875th career game as the Lockerroom manager. "I kept asking [Stephens] if he had anything left after every inning and he said, 'I got it, Coach. I've got plenty left.' This is his third outstanding pitching performance in a row we've gotten from him."
Mountain Home advances to play either Bryant or Jonesboro in tonight's winners' bracket finals while Texarkana will attempt to stay alive in a 1 p.m. against North Little Rock.
Skylar Culver singled off Texarkana's Patrick Flanigan to start the bottom of the eighth. He advanced to second on a wild pitch, moved to third on Todd Miller's sacrifice bunt and scored on second wild pitch.
That run gave Mountain Home a 6-5 lead and opened the gates for four more.
Austen Gardner drew a walk. Stephens followed with his fifth single of the afternoon. Hayden Hall drove in a run with a single. Brody Ninemire walked to load the bases. Quinn Ellison picked up his second RBI of the day when he was hit by a pitch. Ryan Czanstkowski capped the scoring with a two-run single.
Given a five-run cushion to start the ninth, Stephens allowed a one-out single to Jackson Murphy, but struck out two and got Brandon White to ground out for the final out.
"He's not the most athletic guy on the field, but he is a competitor," Texarkana Manager Dave Peavy said of Stephens. "He's a full-out competitor. He gets three or four hits a game. I told our guys that's what he's going to do."
Texarkana lost two players during the course of the hot playing conditions. Razorbacks starting catcher Landon Russo was hit by a pitched ball during the fourth inning while behind the plate. Center fielder Hudson Hopkins collapsed near second base before the start of the bottom of the seventh inning. He was escorted off the field by teammates, but was alert after the three-hour and 13-minute game.
Two Mountain Home errors allowed Texarkana to take a 5-1 lead in the second inning. The Razorbacks scored their first three runs of the second inning without the aid of a hit. A hit batter, an error and a walk set up a fielder's choice RBI for Jake Alexander. A second error and a wild pitch accounted for the next two runs. The final Texarkana run was more conventional - Murphy's double was followed by a two-out RBI single by Brandon White.
Texarkana;140 000 000 -- 5 8 2
Mountain Home;103 100 05x -- 10 15 2
Stutts, Flanigan (4) and Russo, Stubber (4). Czanstkowski, Stephens (2) and Ninemire. W - Stephens. L - Flanigan.
NORTH LITTLE ROCK COLTS 13,
FORT SMITH KERWINS 3
Michael Knight and Derrick Flowers each drove in three runs and Jovani Gonzalez pitched six solid innings as North Little Rock (17-7) eliminated Fort Smith (26-4).
North Little Rock banged out 14 hits, including three each by Knight, Jack Partlow, Hopkins and Weigle.
Michael Rhea, Hayden Harvey and Christian Neves all had two hits for Kerwins.
Fort Smith;000 010 2 -- 3 8 3
North Little Rock;103 432 x -- 13 14 1
Lawrence, Woolly (4), Sisemore (6), Cagle (6) and Miller. Gonzalez, Weigle (7) and Partlow. W -- Gonzalez. L -- Lawrence.
CABOT CENTENNIAL BANK 6,
JACKSONVILLE GWATNEY 2
Ryan Logan drove in two runs and Connor Vocque had three of Cabot's 14 hits in a victory over Jacksonville in a losers' bracket game.
Gavin Tillery picked up the victory as Cabot rallied from a 2-0 deficit. Logan, Adam Hicks, Tristan Bulice, Coleman McAtee and Tillery all had two hits for Cabot (20-12).
Cabot;000 110 130 -- 6 14 1
Jacksonville;002 000 000 -- 2 9 0
Patterson, Tillery (4) and Vinson. Hickingbotham, Perry (8) and Jones. W - Tillery. L - Hickingbotham.
BRYANT BLACKSOX 14, JONESBORO RICEMEN 6
Blake Patterson and Trevor Ezell each drove in three runs and Bryant rallied from a 6-3 deficit to advance to tonight’s winners’ bracket final game against Mountain Home. Ezell doubled and tripled, giving him five extra-base hits in two state tournament games. Patterson sparked a five-run rally in the sixth with a two-run single. He also had a sacrifice fly in the ninth. Harrison Dale came on in relief of starter Zach Jackson in the fifth inning to collect the victory. Dalton Holt had two hits, including a RBI triple, for Bryant (38-4). Seth Eakin and Mason Gibson both had two hits for the Ricemen (25-15).
Bryant......................201 015 203 — 14 13 2 Jonesboro ..................005 100 000 — 6 8 6 Jackson, Dale (5), Emmerling (8) and Breeding. Thomas, B. Brown (6), N. Brown (9) and Groves, K. Hydrick (9). W - Dale. L - Thomas.
Sports on 07/28/2014