Devils drop double-header to Bombers

Devils drop double-header to Bombers

West Memphis offense sputters against Mountain Home

WM School District The West Memphis Blue Devils got the pitching they needed Tuesday afternoon at Tilden Rodgers Complex, but the offense was a slow go.

With such a small margin for error in the end, the Blue Devils wound up dropping a doubleheader to Mountain Home, losing the opener 5-2 and then the nightcap 5-0.

It wasn’t so much the lack of hits for the Blue Devils (2-6-1 overall, 0-2 in the 5A-East Conference), it was the runners left on base. In the opener, the Blue Devils had a respectable seven hits, but stranded a whopping 10 baserunners, including leaving the bases loaded in each of the final two innings.

“We did not do a good job with our approach with runners in scoring position,” said first-year Blue Devil head coach Josh Fortner. “It seems we were trying to chop through the zone, instead of staying long. It’s something we’re fixing, but we’ve got a long way to go.”

In the opener, junior ace lefty Price Watson was dominant through five innings. After a tidy 12-pitch perfect first inning, Watson settled in and struck out 8 the first time through the Mountain Home order.

Watson navigated his way through a troublesome second inning when the Bombers placed runners at second and third with no outs. But the Blue Devil southpaw fanned the next three hitters.

“Price attacked the zone all day,” said Fortner.

He allowed four hits and no runs through five frames, striking out 10.

The Blue Devils broke a scoreless tie against Mountain Home starting pitcher Will Gross, an Arkansas State University signee.

Sophomore Cade Bell led off the fifth with a single and he scored the game’s first run on Owens McConnell’s opposite-field triple.

Senior Trey Brossett then plated McConnell with a deep sacrifice fly for a 2-0 West Memphis lead.

With a 77-pitch count, Watson went back out for the sixth when trouble began with one out. Two straight singles and a walk jammed the bases.

But Watson struck out Trey Jordan for the second out.

The defining moment of the day, however, was won by Mountain Home’s Luke Dibble, who fought his way through an 11-pitch at bat and singled on a 3-2 pitch to plate all three runners.

“In the past, pulling Price early hasn’t worked for us, so I let him stay in” Fortner explained. “He gave us all he had, and I thought he was excellent the whole day.”

Mountain Home (8-3, 4-0) added two more insurance runs off reliever Mason Kearney.

With the bases loaded and two out in the sixth, Mountain Home coach Tim Carver, a former Razorback baseballer, lifted Gross for Jim Strider for a favorable lefty-on-lefty matchup, which Strider won to put out the fire.

With Strider in trouble in the seventh and the bases loaded, once again Carver pulled the right strings and replaced Strider with Luke Jackson, who fanned the final two hitters to earn the save.

Others hitting safely for the Blue Devils in the opener were Chavarris Adaway, Caleb Catt, Carlson Bennage, Brossett and Gage Watson.

In the nightcap, Bell was brilliant with three scoreless innings before the visitors broke through with three runs in the fourth.

By Billy Woods