LITTLE ROCK — Little Rock outhit St. Louis during junior boys action of the RBI Southwest Regional at Lamar Porter Field, but walks, balks, errors and hit batters eventually doomed the host team Friday afternoon.
St. Louis managed only four singles, but survived to win a wild 11-10 decision when Cardinals third baseman Antwon Hoard snagged a line drive and turned it into an unassisted game-ending double play.
Three Little Rock pitchers issued a combined four walks and hit six batters. St. Louis stole home three times, and scored twice on balks, twice on passed balls, once on an errorand once on a wild pitch. The Cardinals scored only twice on batted balls.
“The little mistakes hurt us,” Little Rock Coach Bob Hamilton said. “Holding base runners is not our strength.Some of our players are good at it, some of them are not. We’ve got to get there. It’s an evolving process.”
Little Rock outhit St. Louis 8-4, including two-run doubles from Joseph Scott, a sophomore at Little Rock Parkview, and Chronicle James, who attends Pulaski Heights Middle School. Nine of Little Rock’s 10 runs came with two outs.
Little Rock trailed 11-6 after three innings but pushed across three runs in the fourth and held St. Louis scoreless in the bottom of the fourth.
Little Rock threatened to take the lead in the fifth. After scoring one run on an error, Little Rock had runners on first and third with one out when James hit a line drive that was caught by Hoard, who thentagged the runner for the final out.
Earlier in the day, Little Rock had been limited to a pair of singles in an 8-0 loss to Arlington, Texas. The Little Rock team has two more games today.
SENIOR BOYS
HOUSTON 16, LITTLE ROCK 1
Defending regional champion Houston banged out five extra-base hits in handing the host senior boys team a loss at Gary Hogan Field.
Shortstop Adrian Lopez drove in five runs - including a game-ending basesloaded triple, his second of the game.
Little Rock staged a two-out rally in the first inning to take a 1-0 lead. Mason Gibbons hit a two-out single, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored after Chase Miller’s infield single was misplayed at first base for an error.
Houston scored nine runs on five hits in the second inning and added six runs on five hits in the third.
Sports, Pages 23 on 07/24/2010