Siloam Springs' baseball team recovered from a slow start to earn its first 5A/6A District 1 victory on Tuesday.
Clarksville plated three runs in the top of the first and led 4-1 going into the third inning, but Siloam Springs took the lead with five in the bottom of the third and went on to an 11-7 victory in a battle of Panthers at James Butts Baseball Complex.
"We got down early three runs and came back," said Siloam Springs head coach Alan Hardcastle, "just putting the ball in play and coming up with some big hits. I mean we had guys hitting gap shots and stealing bases and taking advantage on the base paths. We bounced back nice."
Senior Jacob Rowe inherited a sticky situation in relief of Baron Meek in the third inning with Clarksville up 4-1 and looking for more runs in the top of the third inning. Rowe got the final two outs of the third inning to get Siloam Springs out of the jam.
"(Rowe) came in and he had his changeup really working," Hardcastle said. "He was spotting it up good and had those guys out on their front foot. We had some easy fly balls and some easy groundballs and even some strikeouts. He came in and took over and just threw strikes. That's what we needed."
Siloam Springs went to work offensively in the bottom of the third.
Taylor Pool drew a leadoff walk and stole second base and scored when Isaac Price ripped a double into the left field corner.
Meek reached on an error, and after a Dalton Marsh single, Price and Meek scored on Tanner Broyles' two-run double into the right-center field gap to tie the game 4-4.
Chance Hilburn knocked in Marsh and Broyles with a two-run single as Siloam Springs took a 6-4 lead.
After Rowe pitched a scoreless top of the fourth, Siloam Springs added two more runs in the bottom of the fourth. Price led off with a walk and stole second and third base. He scored on a sacrifice fly by Meek, which resulted in Meek reaching second base safely when Clarksville's outfielder dropped the ball in left field. Meek stole third base and scored on a groundout by Marsh for an 8-4 lead.
Clarksville got a run back in the fifth, but Siloam Springs scored three in the sixth to go up 11-5.
Pool singled, stole second and scored on an error, while Price reached on a Clarksville error and moved to third on another error.
Meek tripled into the right-center field gap to score Price and scored himself on a Broyles groundout.
Clarksville got two runs back in the seventh, but Siloam Springs cut the rally short with the final out when a Clarksville base runner was thrown out at second trying to stretch a single into a double.
Broyles pitched the final two innings for the save, and Rowe got the win with 2 2/3 innings of work.
Siloam Springs finished with 10 hits with Broyles, Hilburn and Rowe each with two hits apiece. Broyles, who had three RBIs and scored two runs, got Siloam Springs on the board in the second inning when he tripled and scored on Rowe's base hit.
Price and Meek each scored three runs for Siloam Springs, while Pool and Broyles each scored two runs.
Clarksville^301^010^2^--^7^8^5
Siloam Springs^015^203^X^--^11^10^5
Villareal, Case (3), Payne (3), Clark (6) and Waddill; Meek, Rowe (3), Broyles and Pool. W - Rowe. L - Case. Sv - None. HRs -- None.
Bentonville West 17, Siloam Springs 6
CENTERTON -- Joey Aden's two-run home run capped a string of 15 unanswered runs as West came from behind to defeat Siloam Springs in nonconference action at the Wolverine Athletic Complex on Wednesday
The Wolverines (6-2) trailed 6-2 going into the bottom of the second inning before tying the game with two in the second and two in the third. West then blew the game open with a six-run fifth, highlighted by Kendall Thornton's two-run double and Jason Gloeckler's bases-clearing double, before Aden's second home run of the season capped a five-run sixth.
Gloeckler had two hits and drove in four runs, while Aden added two hits and three RBIs. Hunter Mayes pitched 4.1 innings of relief and picked up the win for West, which will play in a spring break tournament in Little Rock next week.
Isaac Price had three hits, two RBIs and scored two runs for Siloam Springs, while Tanner Broyles had three hits and two RBIs for Siloam Springs.
Taylor Pool had two hits, two walks and scored two runs, while Reed Wilbanks had two hits. Pool took the loss on the mound for the Panthers.
Alma 6, Siloam Springs 5
ALMA -- The Panthers fell to 2-6 on the season and 1-2 in 5A/6A District 1 play Thursday with a 6-5 loss at Alma.
Siloam Springs took an early 1-0 lead in the first, but Alma responded with two runs in the first and the Airedales led 5-1 after five innings.
Siloam Springs began to rally in the late innings against Alma ace Parker Edwards, and the Panthers had the go-ahead run on base in the top of the seventh, but Alma was able to record the final out to preserve the victory.
Up next
Siloam Springs is off to the Best of the West Tournament in the Memphis, Tenn., area this week. The Panthers have played in the tournament the last two years, going 2-2 each time.
"We're really hoping to come out and kind of find ourselves as a team," Hardcastle said. "Kinda get closer together, do some real good team bonding over there. You know we're going to go see some good baseball teams."
Siloam Springs will open the tournament with two games on Monday at USA Baseball Complex in Millington, Tenn. The Panthers will play at 4 p.m. against Bolton, Tenn., and then at 6:30 p.m. against Houston, Tenn.
On Tuesday, Siloam Springs will play at 4 p.m. against St. Benedict Academy (Tenn.) in Briarcrest, Tenn., and then close out the schedule at 4 p.m. Wednesday against Arkansas Class 5A Wynne.
"We're just hoping to come away with trying to find some extra guys. We've got nine to 12 guys right now that are in the mix and playing quite consistently. We're just going to try to find some other guys to step in if need be, but mainly trying to find ourselves as a team."
Sports on 03/18/2018