CENTRAL ARKANSAS INVITATIONAL

Hill, Long lead Morrilton charge

Morrilton did not enter the Central Arkansas Invitational with a sparkling record but the Devil Dogs put together two eye-popping performances Thursday.

Senior Jaren Hill went 4 for 4 with a home run, junior pitcher Maddox Long tossed a seven-hitter and the Morrilton defense turned two double plays as the Devils Dogs downed host Little Rock Catholic 7-4 in a quarterfinal game at Lamar Porter Field.

"I think we shocked ourselves with that one," said Hill, who doubled twice and drove in three runs as the Dogs' extended their winning streak to three after an eight-game losing streak.

Morrilton (4-8) will play Sylvan Hills in today's semifinals at Lamar Porter. Conway and Bryant will play in the other semifinal at Little Rock Christian.

Hill entered the day with a .421 batting average. He now has 4 home runs, 5 doubles and 12 RBI this season.

"Jaren is the type of kid that baseball is his life," Morrilton Coach Matt Long said. "He's a special kid. When he comes to the plate I expect good things to happen."

"The rest of the teams in this tournament will need to be careful because that sucker can swing the bat," Catholic Coach Dustin Strube said of Hill. "He had a good day."

Hill lined a single to left in the first, doubled in runs in the third and fifth innings and lifted a first-pitch offering from Pierce Altfoff in the seventh inning over the left-center field fence.

"Coming into a tournament like this we expect to see a lot of different pitching," Hill said. "Hopefully, it will help us get better."

Maddox Long threw a complete game. He stuck out four and walked two. He also induced eight fly outs.

"Maddox has always been a pitch-to-contact pitcher," said Coach Long, who is also Maddox's father. "He's not going after the strikeout. He going to get ground outs or pop ups."

"We couldn't get the ball out of the air," Strube said. "[Long] is a good pitcher. We hit the ball hard at times but a lot of them were right at them. But eight free ones, that's almost three innings worth of outs."

Catholic senior Evan Hiatt belted a lead-off home run in the fourth inning to tie the game at 3-3, but Hill's second run-scoring double with one-out in the fifth put Morrilton on top for good.

Trailing 6-3 in the bottom of the sixth, Catholic (4-6) started a two-out rally with a double by William Plafcan and back-to-back infield singles from Luke Hindman and Ethan Fowler. Long, however, got Robert Bavon to line out sharply to center field and then worked a perfect seventh.

Earlier in the day, junior Dylan White homered and senior Connor Boyle collected a two-run single as the Devil Dogs defeated Bentonville West 5-4. White and Boyle combined for a five-hitter.

Catholic had advanced into the quarterfinals with a 13-5 victory over Hot Springs Lakeside. Plafcan's fourth-inning grand slam highlighted the Rockets' 12-hit attack.

Sports on 03/23/2018

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