CONWAY -- Despite his arm not feeling 100% when arriving at the ballpark Sunday, Steffen Fak threw 102 pitches over his 6 2/3 innings to lead Fort Smith to a 6-4 win over Paragould in Game 1 of the Arkansas American Legion AAA State Tournament final at Bear Stadium.
But with the chance to get his team to a winner-take-all game at 7 p.m. today on the campus of the University of Central Arkansas, Fak wasn't going to let his arm stop him.
"You don't feel a single thing, especially when adrenaline's pumping," Fak said. "This is probably the best [my arm] has felt all summer."
Paragould didn't have to swing the bat to score its first two runs as Fort Smith starter Hunter Taylor walked the first six batters he faced. Paragould scored its first run on a Taylor wild pitch and its second on a four-pitch walk to Tanner Duncan.
Taylor lasted 1/3 of an inning, throwing 31 pitches, before being pulled with the bases loaded. Fort Smith turned to Fak to contain the damage and keep the game within reach.
On his second pitch, Fak induced an inning-ending double-play to avoid further damage and keep the score 2-0.
Fak faced traffic on the basepaths throughout the game, stranding 10 Paragould baserunners.
"When I get runners on, I usually don't think about it until they start stealing on me, which they didn't," Fak said. "To other people, it could be a stress, but for me, it's just another batter up to bat."
Eli Gilbreath helped his teammate with a home run in the top of the second inning to cut the lead to 2-1. The rest of the Fort Smith lineup followed suit, scoring five runs over the next two innings to take a 6-2 lead through four innings.
As his offense was putting runs on the board, Fak was doing his job of keeping them off. He held the Paragould offense scoreless until the sixth inning. Fak didn't suffer from the walks issue that ailed Taylor but did have control issues of his own -- hitting five batters.
Those control issues came to a head in the fifth inning as he hit two Paragould batters and allowed a hit to load the bases with one out. Paragould's Logan McIntyre's 2-run double brought it to 6-4. But Fak managed to record a strikeout and forced a groundout to avoid further damage.
To advance to the final, Fort Smith defeated Bryant 7-6 on a game-winning hit from Ben Brooks. Fak, a Fort Smith Northside graduate, didn't play in that game, but the emotions of a win like that carried over into his performance.
"It gave us a little push like, 'OK, we can do this,' " Fak said. "Everyone was pumped up for this game, and we knew we could take hold of this team."
Fak, who is in his second year of playing for Fort Smith, won't pitch in today's deciding game, but knowing that he left everything he had on the field Sunday to get his team there is all he could ask for.
"It feels amazing," Fak said. "With this being probably the last time I play with these guys, it feels good that I was able to come out here and compete, especially with this team behind me."