By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
Cold and wet conditions were apparently not conducive to good play by the Sylvan Hills Bears Tuesday evening in Jonesboro. The Bears salvaged a split with the Hurricane with a 6-1 win in the nightcap after blowing a 3-0 lead late in game one.
The split leaves Sylvan Hills 7-2 in the 6A-East and a half-game behind league-leading Searcy, who is 8-2 after pulling off an impressive sweep of Marion.
“We got great pitching but we didn’t play well in one inning and it cost us,” Sylvan Hills coach Denny Tipton said of game one.
The Bears took the lead in the second inning when junior Hunter Miller hit a two-run home run. They added to that lead in the top of the very next inning on an RBI base hit by Garrett Eller that drove in Miller.
No one scored in the fourth and Jonesboro made it 3-1 with a run in the bottom of the fifth. The sixth inning was the costly one. After starting pitcher Ross Bogard got the leadoff hitter out, an error left a runner safe at second and a base hit scoredthe runner to make it 3-2. Tipton pulled Bogard at that point for Blaine Sims. Sims struck out the next batter for out number two. An error and a hit batter followed to load the bases, and a triple cleared them and gave Jonesboro the lead.
“We had two mistakes and gave up five unearned runs because of it,” Tipton said. “I thought Bogard did a good job for us on the mound.”
Bogard gets a no-decision and Sims took the loss on the mound. Sims got the save in game two after another fine performance on the mound by starting pitcher Blake Evans. Evans gave up just four hits and no earned runs in the Bears’ 6-1 win.
Senior Taylor Roark was the offensive star of game two. He gave Sylvan Hills the lead in the first inning, scoring on a passed ball a few pitches after his base hit. Miller made it 2-0 on a sacrifice grounder by Mark Turpin. Roark got an RBI double in the second inning and a two-run home run in the fifth that made it 5-1. Shod Neely scored the final run of the game in the fifth inningt off a sac fly by T.C. Squires. The Bears moved to ?? overall and will play a non-conference game at Springdale on Saturday. Next Tuesday Sylvan Hills will get back league play against Jacksonville.
The Red Devils were swept Tuesday by West Memphis. The other league matchup saw Mountain Home take two from Forrest City. After Searcy and Sylvan Hills, Jonesboro is in third place at 7-3, Marion is 6-4, Mountain Home.
