BASEBALL
VALLEY VIEW 13, LITTLE ROCK CHRISTIAN 3
In a game that was a rematch of last year's Class 5A baseball state title game but carried little of the importance, the Valley View Blazers defeated the Little Rock Christian Warriors 13-3 on Friday afternoon at Warrior Field in Little Rock.
The Blazers (18-1) blasted four home runs, including two by seven-hole hitter Kayson Becker in winning their regular-season meeting with the Warriors for the second straight year.
Little Rock Christian (16-3) won the state championship game last year 4-3. But on Friday the Blazers' offense, supported by home run power, and enough pitching decided the outcome.
"This is like any game for us,'' Valley View Coach Josh Allison said. "We want to win any game we play. Obviously we all know they beat us last yer at the end of the season.
"So we've had some different games on the schedule check marked, kind of like a revenge tour. It was good to get this one, but it doesn't mean any more than any other win. Last year we beat them in the regular season and they beat us at the end, so it really doesn't matter and what matters is at the end."
On Friday, the Blazers had a 6-0 lead after three innings.
In the first inning, Slade Caldwell walked, stole second and scored on Dax Webb's groundout to second.
In the second, after Drew Gartman singled and Lawson Ward walked, Becker homered to center field while batting right-handed. Owen Roach added another run on a sacrifice fly to center.
In the third, from the left side, Becker hit a solo homer for a 6-0 lead.
The Warriors trimmed the margin in the third when Jackson Kircher hit a towering two-run home run to left.
Roach added a solo homer for the Blazers in the fourth but was answered by Carson Stall's blast to left to make the score 7-3 going to the fifth.
Valley View then had a sixth-run sixth, which included Webb's a two-run home run and Becker driving in his fifth RBI with a single to center.
Caldwell worked four innings for the Blazers to pick up the win and Jade Taylor closed with two clean innings, including four strikeouts.
"I thought we did a pretty good job of taking advantage of having guys on and we had nine or 10 hard hit balls and we put some pressure on them on the bases and got some good pitches to hit and I thought one of the differences was our run game,'' Allison said.
"I feel really good where our pitching staff is and our lineup one through nine is barreling balls."