CLASS 3A STATE BASEBALL TOURNAMENT : Wolves power past Genoa, into state semifinals
Posted on Sunday, May 11, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/Sports/65088/
SEARCY — The Lincoln Wolves just don’t know when to quit.
The Wolves’ bats stayed hot as they advanced to the Class 3 A State Baseball semifinals with an 11-2 win over Genoa Central at Harding Academy on Saturday. Lincoln (20-9 ) will return to Searcy on Monday to face Marmaduke at 4 p. m.
The Wolves have strung together 11 straight wins spanning the district, regional and now state tournaments. Lincoln’s magical run hasn’t caught head coach Jonathan Johnson completely unawares.
“ I really thought we had a run in us because we had played well in the regular season, ” he said. “ We just had one or two mistakes here or there that if we would have eliminated, we would have won more games early in the year. We thought if we fixed that stuff, we had an opportunity to make a run. ”
Lincoln’s Seth Pitts picked up the win on the mound, going 5 2 / 3 innings.
“ Everyone talks about our hitting — and we have been hitting well — but our pitching has really come along also, ” Johnson said. “ Our pitchers have been doing a good job of getting hitters down early in the count more often. ”
Pitts also led the Lincoln 11-hit attack. He went 3 for 4 with two doubles.
Lincoln’s Tyler Whorton (3-3, run scored ), Patrick Rich (2-4 ), Jason Rich (2-3, 2 runs scored ) and Trevor Center (2-3 ) all hit well, but Justin Carr launched the biggest bomb of the day with a 2-run home run.
“ We’ve always been putting the bat on the ball pretty well, ” Johnson said. “ Thankfully, that has continued. ”
Johnson hasn’t decided on Monday’s starting pitcher yet but Cody Smith is a possibility. Harding Academy 6 Gurdon 4
Harding Academy rallied for four runs in the fifth inning to defeat the Gurdon Go-Devils 6-4 on Saturday to advance to its second consecutive Class 3 A State Tournament semifinal.
Gurdon scored three unearned runs with two outs on an error and three hits, including an RBI single by Aaron Cupp, to lead 3-2 in the top of the fifth inning. Marmaduke 18 Mayflower 2
Jacob Mason finished 3 for 4 with a home run, a double and 5 RBIs to help lead Marmaduke past Mayflower in the quarterfinals. Leadoff batter Ray Taylor was 4 for 4. Mayflower was held scoreless until the fourth inning. Corning 3 Shiloh Christian 2
Matt Ryan hit an RBI single, and Brad Morrow hit a two-run double off the left field wall in Corning’s 3-run fourth inning, which was enough for the victory. Corning Pitcher Zack Brown struck out seven.