BENTON -- Texarkana must feel snakebit at Panther Field.
The Razorbacks lost to Benton during the regular season on a home run in the final at-bat, and Thursday they were eliminated in similar fashion by Greenwood in the opening round of the Class 6A baseball state tournament.
Tanner Cooper delivered a game-winning single in the ninth inning to lift Greenwood to a 3-2 victory over Texarkana to set up a matchup today against Benton, the top seed from the 6A-South, at 10 a.m. Benton defeated Little Rock Hall 20-2 in the opening round.
"That one kind of bucked the trend for us this year," Greenwood Coach Randy Garner said. "We have averaged about 25 wins a year since I have been here, but this year we have lost either 11 or 12 games -- I gave up and quit counting -- where we led in the fifth inning or later. It has just been that kind of year, and we have played a lot of good teams.
"That didn't help much, either."
It was a big day for Cooper, whose one-out single in the bottom of the seventh extended the game and kept the Tigers in the hunt for the state title.
"He is a guy we want up in that situation," Garner said. "He has been one of our better players this year. That has been the problem. We have not been able to get the right guys up when we were in that situation.
"Today we got the right one up there."
Greenwood's rally ruined a big day for Texarkana, the fifth seed from the South.
Greenwood took a 1-0 lead in the first, but Texarkana grabbed the lead in the third and kept it until the bottom of the seventh inning. Chris Sunde's fielder's choice in the first gave Greenwood a 1-0 lead, but Texarkana's Brayden Walker was hit by a pitch in the third inning to tie the game and Ty Martindale put the Razorbacks ahead with a sacrifice fly to center field.
It stayed that way until the seventh thanks in large part to Texarkana's defense. Center fielder Tomarco Collins made a sliding catch behind second base to end one inning and went deep to run down a fly ball to end another.
Cooper worked the first 4 2/3 innings but left with the bases loaded. Jake Herrell relieved and worked out of the inning with a pop-out to first.
The Razorbacks put a runner to third in the top of the seventh and had a runner on second in the extra innings but did little else. Herrell closed out the game by retiring five consecutive.
The game was delayed for more than an hour, first because of lightning and later because of heavy rain.
Sports on 05/16/2014