CHAMPIONSHIP:
Sport Shop, 14
Texarkana, 8
Benton Sport Shop defeated Texarkana 14-8 in the Junior Zone tournament championship game Tuesday at the Sheridan Sports & Leisure Complex. With the win, Sport Shop will be a No. 1 seed in the Junior State Tournament, which is being held at Gary Hogan Field in Little Rock this weekend.
SEMIFINALS:
Sport Shop, 5
Texarkana, 4
Things were not looking good for Benton Sport Shop in the top of the first inning against the Texarkana Razorbacks in the semifinals of the Junior Zone Tournament on Monday at Sheridan’s Sports & Leisure Complex. Down 4-0 after the top of the first, Sport Shop cut the lead in half in the bottom of the inning and came back to down Texarkana 5-4 for a spot in today’s Zone Tourney final.
Sport Shop will play the winner of Texarkana and Sheridan in the loser’s bracket final today at 7:30 p.m. Should Benton lose tonight, Sport Shop plays Wednesday in a winner-take-all game at 7 p.m. Benton will either be a No. 1 or 2 seed in the Junior State Tournament next week.
“Jarred Patrick started it and he finished it; 76 pitches and a complete game,” Sport Shop Coach Michael Mattox said. “He pitched a hell of a game. He settled down; really, it wasn’t his fault in the first to be honest with you. He had that one walk but then we made the errors behind him.
“After that, he just kept throwing strikes. They were real aggressive at the plate and kept swinging at first pitches. He got a lot of fly balls, did a great job of changing speeds on them and pounded the zone. At this point in the tournament, that’s all you ask your pitchers to do. He did exactly what we asked him to do.”
After Texarkana took the 4-0 lead, Benton bounced back with two runs in the bottom of the inning and took the lead for good later in the game.
“Connor Pinkerton had the big triple to take the lead,” Mattox said. “We had (players at) first and second, and he hit a triple to score (Tristian) Hutchinson and (Jacob) Stroud. Hutchinson scored from first; that kid can fly. We just kept pounding. We had a two-out hit from Gage Lester and scored a run.”
Mattox explained that everyone has contributed in Sport Shop’s run as they are undefeated in the tournament thus far.
“We can’t pin it on one player, offensively,” he said. “Offensively, we’ve been very consistent 1 through 9. Guys do their jobs, whether it’s a bunt or a big hit. Our pitching staff has been almost perfect.”