By KELLY FENTON
Leader sports editor
TEXARKANA — His heart didn’t appear to be in it when he said it, but Arkansas High head coach Mike Lloyd suggested that, if his team and Sylvan Hills could play a 7-game series, it might be a different story.
Maybe Lloyd was thinking someone other than D.J. Baxendale would be pitching those games for the Bears. But with Baxendale on the mound, it’s hard to imagine a much different outcome than the 3-0 shutdown D.J. and the Bears put on the Razorbacks on Monday night to advance to the 6A state championship game at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday.
They’ll take on Watson Chapel, 6-3 winners over Jonesboro in the other semifinal game on Monday.
“In a single-game elimination, if you come up and run into a guy that’s having a good night, that’s the way it can happen,” Lloyd said of Baxendale’s performance. “I tip my hat to him.”
Baxendale, the junior transfer from Abundant Life, showed no effects from having pitched 48 hours earlier, tossing a 2-hitter against an Arkansas High team with a potent lineup. TheseRazorbacks are the same team that was ranked in the top 20 nationally and that features a slugger in Garrett Underwood who hit four consecutive home runs in one game this season.
Baxendale was coming off a 51-pitch, 4-inning outing against Searcy in the state quarterfinals on Saturday. Sylvan Hills head coach Denny Tipton said he realizes he took a gamble when he pulled his ace with the Bears clinging to a 2-0 lead on Saturday.
“Yeah, I probably gambled a little,” said Tipton, whose club set a school record by recording its 28th win. “But it worked out.”
Baxendale said he felt no fatigue on Monday.
“Saturday was just like a midweek bullpen since I only threw about 50 pitches,” he said. “So it didn’t affect me too much. My adrenaline took over [in the seventh inning]. I knew we were three outs away, so I just reared back and went after it.”
Sylvan Hills got all the offense it needed in the second inning when Jordan Spears singled with one out. Pinch runner Casey Cerrato stole second and scored on Tyler Van Schoyck’s looping liner to center.
Ryan Dillon, running for Van Schoyck, stole second and scored on Clint Thornton’s long double to the fence in right to make it 2-0.
It was theme for the night: Get on base and run. The Bears stole seven bases in the contest, losing only one when Mike Maddox was out at third in the fifth. They had another runner picked off.
“We like to run,” Tipton said. “That’s our game plan every game. We hit the ball hard and ran the bases well. And we played great defense. Clint Thornton at second base made a lot of great plays.”
His best play of the night came in the fourth inning, when he tracked down a slow roller near second base and, throwing away from his body, got Josh Stringfellow when first baseman Blake Evans made a nice stretch.
Sylvan Hills got an insurance run in the third when Hunter Miller was hit with a pitch, stole second and scored on Nathan Ellers’ line-drive single to center.
But the story of the game remained Baxendale, who al-lowed only four base runners on two hits and two walks. After issuing a pair of walks in the third, he retired 12 in a row and 13 of the final 14.
The only Razorback to reach during that span was Josh Stringfellow, who was credited with a single when his pop up into shallow left with two outs in the seventh dropped in between shortstop Justin Treece and left fielder Mark Turpin after an apparent miscommunication between the two.
But Baxendale recorded his 10th strikeout of the game to send Sylvan Hills to the state title game for the first time since 2005.
“I knew they could swing it one through eight (in their lineup),” Baxendale said. “So I had to really be focused and make sharp pitches and go after them with everything I had. I tried to keep them off guard. I’ve got seven or eight pitches so it was kind of hard for them to guess what pitch was coming.”
Tyler Weir got Arkansas High’s only other hit — a solid single to center in the first inning.
“These teenagers, with their adrenaline in the state tournament is going to carry them a lot,” Tipton said of Baxendale’s 11 innings of work over three days. “Texarkana swings the bat well. But D.J. has great stuff and throws from a lot of different angles. He’s just a great pitcher.
“It’s a great thing he’s just a junior. A great thing for our sake, anyway. He can be a dominant pitcher, and he threw a dominant game tonight.”
Arkansas High finished the season 23-11. Sylvan Hills (28-6) finished with seven hits, with no one collecting more than one in the contest.
“Once again, we’re capable of hitting it all the way through the lineup,” Tipton said. “I like multiple-hit games from guys. But it’s a team game, and we got some hits when we needed them.”
It’s been a tumultuous ride for the Bears, who have endured the death of a former teammate in a car accident in January, as well as the loss of their home field to tornados in April. Tipton said those things are never far from their minds and their hearts.
“It’s always your goal [to get to the state championship],” he said. “But we’ve dealt with so much. I can’t lie. I think it means something more with everything we’ve been through.”
