FAYETTEVILLE -- A few command issues early wasn't enough to throw Sheridan pitcher Tyler Cacciatori off his game Friday.
He had no problem keeping Benton off its game.
The University of Arkansas commitment baffled the Panthers to carry the Yellowjackets to the Class 5A state baseball title with a 2-0 victory Friday at Baum-Walker Stadium.
"He was a warrior, and he's been a warrior all season," Sheridan Coach Michael Moore said of Cacciatori. "I felt like he's kind of not being included in some of the talk about the big pitchers in the state, but he was on a mission [Friday]."
Cacciatori can consider that mission accomplished after the outing he put forth on the mound against the Yellowjackets' biggest rivals. The junior right-hander allowed 4 hits and struck out 10 in 61/3 innings. He was two batters away from tossing a complete game but reached his pitch count limit of 110 after a single by Benton junior Jackson Huskey.
Sophomore Brandon Arledge came on to get the final two outs for Sheridan (26-5), which won a state title for the third time in the past five years.
Junior Jackson Sorey backed Cacciatori's strong outing with a team-leading two hits. His classmate, Hayden Hicks, added an RBI -single while sophomore Cooper Oliphant belted a home run for Sheridan, which was shut out 10-0 by Benton on April 16.
The Yellowjackets also defeated the Panthers in a 10-9 slugfest to take home the Class 6A title in 2015.
"Our team has been working so hard for this," said Cacciatori, who gave up one hit in five innings during a 10-0 shutout of White Hall on Monday in the semifinals. "Everybody has been doubting us all year, and we wanted to prove them wrong. We continued to grind and fight all season, and to cap it off with a title, it's truly special."
For Benton (23-6), it was a familiar ending. The Panthers have come out on the losing end in the finals in four of their five trips. Benton suffered a 4-0 setback to Greenwood in last year's championship game.
"We're getting here, but we've got to find a way to finish it out," Benton Coach Mark Balisterri said. "We just didn't get the big hits when we needed them. We couldn't get anything going against Cacciatori.
"He did a heck of a job keeping us off-balanced all game. We were trying to get to his pitch count, but when we did, it was a little bit too late."
The Panthers never had a runner advance past second base, but they had their chances to do damage. Cacciatori hit two batters in the top of the second inning and was called for a balk in the third. Both instances resulted in runners advancing into scoring position, but they were left stranded.
Hicks got Sheridan on the board first when Sorey darted home on his sharply hit ball in the bottom of the second. Oliphant padded the Yellowjackets' lead with a towering blast in the third that easily cleared the left-field wall.
That would be all the run support Sheridan would need.
"I really felt like we had the upper hand when they scheduled this game for [Friday]," Moore said. "Tyler had plenty of rest, took care of his arm, took care himself all week so I knew he'd be full strength. This one is special, though, because not a lot of people thought we'd be here because we're young.
"But after we played the last [junior varsity] game the other night, I asked our kids if they knew what they'd see if they looked up the word loaded in the dictionary. They said what, and I said Sheridan next year."
Sports on 05/18/2019