Pitchers come through in bind

CONWAY -- Pitchers Landon McFadden and Eric White shut down the West team as the East team rallied for a 5-4 victory in the opening game Tuesday night at Farris Field, but the West team managed to hold on for a 7-6 victory in the second game to earn a split in the Arkansas High School Coaches Association All-Star doubleheader.

Ashdown's Kyle Duncan was named Most Valuable Player, while Conway's Kade Jones was named the outstanding player for the East team and Prairie Grove's Ty Tice was named the outstanding player for the West.

McFadden, of Wynne, entered the opening game in the fifth inning with the East leading 5-4 and pitched two perfect innings before White, of Parker's Chapel, closed it out.

McFadden allowed one hit and struck out three -- all of them in the sixth inning -- to pick up the victory. White had two strikeouts and retired another batter on a weak pop-up in an impressive seventh.

Duncan had given the West an early lead with an RBI triple in the second, but the East tied it 1-1 in the third on an RBI double by Kane Malner of White County Central.

The West answered with two runs in the bottom of the third. A double by Ty Owens of El Dorado drove in Rogers' Tim Seldonridge, who had reached on an error. Owens scored two outs later on a fielder's choice for a 3-1 lead.

The East took its first lead in the fourth inning. Little Rock Central's Joey Abraham made it 3-2 with a double, and two runs scored on Knudson's single.

The West pulled even at 4-4 in the bottom of the fourth on Seldonridge's infield single, but South Side Bee Branch's Mason Duncan gave the East the lead for good in the fifth with an RBI groundout that scored Mayflower's Michael Post.

McFadden and White shut down the West the rest of the way.

The West looked to be on its way to an easy victory in the second game, leading 7-3 going into the bottom of the seventh, but Tice ran into some trouble before closing out the victory.

Tice gave up three unearned runs in the seventh, two on a single by Mayflower's Jordan Burns and another on a groundout by McFadden, but Tice sealed the victory with a strikeout.

"This was fun,'' Tice said. "I felt like I played all right. I just came out here to have fun, and that is what I did."

A two-run double in the first inning by Bryant's Chase Tucker gave the West a 2-0 lead, but Woodlawn's Jacob Richardson tied it at 2-2 with a single in the bottom of the inning.

Kyle Duncan's towering home run to right gave the West a 4-2 in the third, but Abraham trimmed it to 4-3 with a sacrifice fly.

Foreman's L'Donta Howard tripled deep into the gap in right-center in the sixth and scored on wild pitch to make it 5-3, and Taylor's Drew Sessions drove in two runs in the seventh to give the West a 7-3.

Game 1

East 001 310 0 -- 5 6 4

West 012 100 0 -- 4 6 1

W -- McFadden. L -- Ritter. Save -- White.

Game 2

West 202 001 2 -- 7 11 3

East 201 000 3 -- 6 10 0

W -- Howard. L -- Chambers. Save -- Tice. HR -- Duncan.

Sports on 06/25/2014

Upcoming Events