By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The Jacksonville Chevy boys fell apart in the last inning Sunday in their finale of the Gwatney Chevrolet Fourth of July Classic. Tournament champion Paragould scored six runs in the top of the seventh inning to take a 9-4 victory. The win gave Paragould the tiebreaker over Sylvan Hills, giving the 7-Up squad the tournament championship. Paragould and Sylvan Hills finished the tournament with 3-0 records, but 7-Up gave up fewer runs.
Jacksonville fell behind 3-0 in the first innings, but came back and held a 4-3 lead heading into the seventh frame.
All of Paragould’s seventh-inning runs came with two outs. Relief pitcher Casey Winstead got the leadoff hitter to fly out to right field. Jason Dollars then singled to left and Jonthan Winn walked. Dollars and Winn tried a double steal, but Jacksonville catcher Tyler Upter-grove gunned Dollars down at third base for the second out.
Winstead then got Jerrod Compton down 0-2 in the count, and threw two pitches that were awfully close to strikes that Compton watched go by. Both were ruled balls, and Compton eventually walked. That opened the flood gates for Paragould.
Jacksonville committed three errors on the next five at bats, with two singles added to the fracas to lift Paragould to victory.
The 7-up team scored two runs in the second inning off Jacksonville starter Randy Peeples.
Peeples pitched out of some severe trouble in the third to hold Paragould to one run in the frame. After giving up one hit in the fourth, Peeples sat the side down in order in the fifth and sixth innings before running into trouble in the seventh.
Jacksonville got on the board in the bottom of the fourth. Kyle West walked with one out and scored on a single by Uptergrove.
The Chevy boys took the lead in the bottom of the sixth with three earned runs.
Trey Smith led off with a single to left field. West popped up to third, but Zach James and Uptergrove hit back-to-back singles to load the bases.
Smith scored on a sacrifice grounder by Zach Thomas, and James and Uptergrove came across when Cameron Hood’s grounder to shortstop was thrown wildly to first base and sailed into right field foul territory.
The loss kept the tournament’s host winless for the tourney. Jacksonville lost to Sheridan and Dunklin Co. Missouri earlier in the tournament.
The three losses give the Chevy boys a 7-13 record on the season.
Jacksonville’s AAA team plays at Benton tonight and will have the rest of the week off.
The A team begins play in the zone 3 tournament this weekend in North Little Rock.
