FAYETTEVILLE -- Time and time again Friday, Fayetteville missed out on golden opportunities to wrap up its baseball home opener against Little Rock Central.
Then, after nine innings, nine men left on base and a woeful 2-for-16 team performance with runners in scoring position, Garrett Owens had seen enough.
Fayetteville 4, Little Rock Central 3 (10)
LR Central^100^010^100^0^—^3^7^2
Fayetteville^201^000^000^1^—^4^6^2
Abraham, Farzley (4), James (7) and Stafford; Savin, Pleimann (4), Arnold (6), Cox (10) and Willis. W - Cox, 2-0. L - James. HR - Fayetteville, Owens.
Owens led off the bottom of the 10th inning and crushed a pitch from LR Central relief pitcher Cameron James down the left field line. The long fly had plenty of distance and just stayed fair, finally giving the Purple Bulldogs a 4-3 victory over the Tigers.
"We should of won this game in regulation time," first-year Fayetteville coach Scott Gallagher said. "We had a lot of really good chances at the plate, and we didn't come through."
Owens, a senior leftfielder, finished 2-for-4 with a walk and two runs batted in and delivered one of Fayetteville's two hits on the day with runners in scoring position. The other came off the bat of Braden Jordan, whose two-run single in the bottom of the first gave Fayetteville an early 2-1 lead.
"(Garrett) is a battler at the plate," Gallagher said. "So far this year he's been a real tough out."
Fayetteville (2-4) had pitch counts on pitchers Friday, with 7A-West Conference play just around the corner starting on Monday. Joey Savin worked the first three innings and allowed just one unearned run and no hits with five strikeouts. Sophomore Miller Pleimann got the next two innings, allowing one run on two hits. Chase Arnold took over in the sixth and appeared ready to close out the game before allowing a LR Central rally in the top of the seventh when Errol Scott led off with a single and scored on a one-out single by Deshun Hampton to tie the game, 3-3.
Hayes Cox (2-0) took over on the mound for Fayetteville in the 10th inning and got the win, working around two hits.
The Tigers (2-4) were able to stay close thanks to their own strong trio on the mound. Nathan Abraham, Ben Farzley and James each went three innings Friday.
"We just needed a timely hit there in the extra innings," LR Central coach Rusty Passini said. "Everytime Fayetteville and Central meet up it's a good one. But that's why we come up here. You look around and see all the championship banners up here, and that's what we're trying to get to at Central."
Fayetteville begins conference play Monday at Fort Smith Southside.
Sports on 03/12/2016