Yes sweat, NLR beats Paragould

North Little Rock pitcher Christian Goshen and the Colts advanced to the semifinals of the American Legion AAA state tournament with an 8-7, come-from-behind victory over Paragould on Friday.
North Little Rock pitcher Christian Goshen and the Colts advanced to the semifinals of the American Legion AAA state tournament with an 8-7, come-from-behind victory over Paragould on Friday.

CONWAY — Chance Harger’s third hit of the afternoon helped North Little Rock rally for a 8-7, 10-inning victory over Paragould in an elimination game of the American Legion Class AAA State Tournament at Hendrix College on a brutally hot Friday afternoon.

Harger lined an outside fastball offering from Ty Gordon into the right-field corner for his second double of the game to score Benny Clinton for the game-tying run. Two batters later, Lawson Dulin was hit by a 3-0 pitch with the bases loaded to send the Colts into today’s final four.

“We’re excited about it,” said North Little Rock assistant coach Ryan Mahoney, whose team trailed 5-1 after five innings and 7-6 entering the bottom of the 10th. “We live to see another day.”

North Little Rock survived 100-degree temperatures and a heat index going as high as 112 to win its fourth consecutive game. The Colts play either the Fort Smith Sportsmen or the Little Rock Vipers at 3 p.m. today.

NORTH LITTLE ROCK 8, PARAGOULD 7 (10)

Paragould took a 7-6 lead in the top of the 10th when Latham Brooks tripled to right and scored on Layne Ditto’s well-placed suicide squeeze bunt to the first-base side. The visitors from Greene County, however, never got an out in the bottom of the 10th.

Clinton drew a lead-off walk from Brooks, who was replaced on the mound by Gordon. Mackenzie Seats singled to center to place runners on first and second. Harger followed with his second RBI of the game.

“I knew it was placed right,” Harger said of his second double. “And I knew I had to get on my horse [to make it to second].”

“Chance is a heck of a ballplayer,” Mahoney said. “But he still has a lot of growing and a lot of maturing to do. He’s only going to get better.”

Christian Goshen was intentionally walked to load the bases, and Dulin took three consecutive pitches before Gordon hit him in the left shoulder to end it. It was third consecutive inning that a North Little Rock batter had been hit by a pitch and the second of which drove in a Colts run.

“We finally got to him [Brooks],” Mahoney said. “With the heat and the pitch counts we’ve been under, it’s only a matter of time. I was really worried about the big guy [Gordon] coming in at the end. I know he’s been a good pitcher all year. But we were able to get to him real quick and end it real quick. So we’re real excited for sure.”

North Little Rock totaled 15 hits against four Paragould pitchers. Harger, Seats and Dulin each had three hits. Dulin, like Harger, also had two doubles, one of which was a lead-off double in the ninth. North Little Rock, however, left Dulin stranded.

“Small ball has not worked out in our favor this tournament, so we’re having to hit to win,” Mahoney said. “But that was a momentum-killer to go out there with a lead-off double and then can’t get the guy home. But we fought hard and we found a way to get it done.”

North Little Rock trailed 5-1 when Harger doubled to start a three-run sixth-inning rally. Goshen walked and Dulin singled to load the bases, then Julian Gonzalez drove in two runs with a single. Dezmond Cordova made it 5-4 with a two-out single.

Paragould led 6-4 in the eighth when Lukas Reddick singled to score Caden McFadden. North Little Rock tied the game 6-6 in the bottom of the inning when Clinton drew a bases-loaded walk and Harger was hit with the bases loaded.

Both teams scored a run in the first. Paragould’s Christian Deen, who was 2 for 3 with 2 RBI, drove in his first run with a single. Dulin’s first double of the contest drove in Seats in the bottom of the first.

LITTLE ROCK VIPERS 12,

FORT SMITH SPORTSMEN 5

Lance Harville-Thomas had a little help with his game-breaking three-run home run.

Fort Smith left fielder Austin Pierce chased down Harville-Thomas’ deep fly ball in the fourth inning only to have the ball pop out of his glove and drop over the fence to break a 4-4 tie, sending the Vipers to today’s final four.

Little Rock will play North Little Rock in an elimination game scheduled to start at 3 p.m.

Fort Smith’s first three batters reached and scored, but the Sportsmen managed only two more runs.

The Vipers had 11 hits, including three by E.J. Scott and two by DeShun Hampton.

Vipers starter Tucker Mann went 6 1/3 innings to collect the victory. Mann gave up 9 hits, but only 2 earned runs, struck out 2, hit 2 batters and walked 2.

Brock Ferguson drove in two runs..

For Fort Smith, brothers Christian and Kinner Brasher combined for five hits. Kinner was 2 for 3 with an RBI and a triple; Christian was 3 for 4 with a double.

Fort Smith led 4-0 after 2 1/2 innings before the Vipers scored 12 runs during the next six innings.

Sports on 07/23/2016

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