LITTLE ROCK — Daniel Spears scored on a two-out, groundball error in the eighth inning and the Texarkana Razorbacks beat the Fayetteville Lindsey Dodgers 7-6 in the championship game of the American Legion state tournament at DeJanis Memorial Field in North Little Rock.
Texarkana advances to the regional tournament in Grand Prairie, Texas. The Arkansas champion will play the Mississippi champion on Aug. 5.
The game was tied at 6-6 when Spears lined a one out double to right field. Fayetteville pitcher Mike Sisco got Merrit Giles on a come backer to the mound. Sisco got Daniel Thompson to hit a slow-rolling ground ball for what could have been the third out, but Fayetteville shortstop Cole Faulcner allowed the ball to roll under his glove. Spears scored easily to break the tie.
Winning pitcher Jon Phillips worked a perfect ninth inning to close out the victory for Texarkana.
Phillips, who was named the tournament’s MVP, was 2 for 4 with two runs scored and a RBI against Fayetteville. Teammate Shawn Hall was also 2 for 4 with a home run. Thompson, Jason Carr and Levi Saxby also had two hitseach for Texarkana.
Fayetteville’s Gordon Miller hit a two-run home run in the seventh that gave the Dodgers a 6-4 lead. Miller finished 2 for 5 with a game high 3 RBI. Jake Barton had two hits for Fayetteville while Faulcner scored two runs.
Texarkana led 1-0 through five innings in an errorless game before both teams began registering both hits and errors.
Fayetteville scored three times in the sixth off Texarkana starter Reid Peavy on three hits and three Texarkana errors to take a 3-1 lead. Miller and Matt Stelte drove in runs with a single and double, respectively.
Texarkana regained the lead, 4-3, with three runs in the bottom of the sixth. Hallcut Fayetteville’s lead with a home run to left, and Kenny Spencer added a run-scoring single.
Fayetteville took advantage of two seventh innings errors to score three and take a 6-4 lead. Faulcner walked and came around to score after an error on Adam Baker’s sacrifice bunt. Miller followed with his two-run home run.
Fayetteville, however, would get only one more hit the rest of the game.
Phillips and Carr had run scoring singles in the seventh inning to tie the game at 6-6. Spears, who was 0 for 11 prior to his plate appearance on Wednesday, started the game-winning rally with a double in the eighth.
Sports, Pages 19 on 07/29/2010