By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
Little Rock Central’s hopes of pulling a 7A-Central season sweep over Cabot dissipated quickly at the hands of the Panther seniors on Tuesday at Brian Wade Conrade Memorial Baseball Field.
The red-hot Panthers entered the 7A state tournament on a 4-game winning streak after beating the Tigers 6-2. Though the streak earned Cabot a berth in the tourney, Pine Bluff’s upset of Conway on Monday cost the Panthers (14-11, 6-8 league) a No. 5 seed. Instead, they took a six seed into their first-round game with Fort Smith Southside yesterday at Burns Park in a game played after Leader deadlines.
The Panthers put up five runs in the first three frames against the Tigers, while senior pitcher Sean Clarkson held Central to a pair of runs through six innings.
Fellow senior Sam Bates faced the final three Tiger batters in the top of the seventh, forcing a pair of pop ups and a strikeout.
For Panthers coach Jay Fitch, it was refreshing to see his talented crop of upperclassmen finally performing at the level they have for the past two weeks.
“We’ve been waiting on that,” Fitch said. “We’vebeen waiting on our seniors to play like seniors. Sean hasn’t had the season he would have liked to have on the mound this year, but he closed out the year with two good outings, and if we win on Friday (against FS Southside), he will probably be on the mound for us on Saturday.”
The winner between Cabot and Southside will face No. 2 seed North Little Rock today at 2:30 p.m.
Clarkson walked the first batter he faced in the top of the first on Tuesday, but fanned the next two Tigers and forced a pop fly from their cleanup hitter to leave the leadoff stranded.
A pair of doubles in the second plated Central’s first run, and they added another in the fifth.
Base hits for lead off batter Matt Evans and two-hole hitter Powell Bryant leading off the first put runners in scoring position, and another single by Drew Burks plated Evans for the first score.
A ground out by Bates scored Bryant for the second run.
It was Evans who kick-started the second Cabot scoring spree in the bottom of the third inning. He led off the inning with his second single of the game. Bryant walked and Bates was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Evans scored on a squeeze play to make it 3-1 and Wainright followed with a two-run single to make it 5-1.
The Panthers scored one more run for insurance in the bottom of the fourth inning before Central changed pitchers.
“I told the kids that it would be great if we could jump on Central,” Fitch said. “They already knew that we swept Catholic the day before, and that there was no hope for them to make it. At that point, we were still in the running for the fifth seed, so we had a lot more to play for than they did.”
Evans led the Panthers, going 3 of 3. Bryant, Burks and Wainwright were each 1 of 3, with two RBI for Wainwright, and one for Burks.
Fitch prepared his club for the possibility of facing Rebels’ ace hurler John Koch in the first round of the state tournament with batting practices that focused on the curve ball.
Koch is noted for the ability to offer up a curve or change-up regardless of the count he faces. Defensively, Fitch is most concerned about 6-3, 265 lb. senior Thomas Biocic.
The Rebels’ most dangerous batter, who was also a three-year starter for the Southside football team at on the defensive line, has recorded a number of big home runs for the Rebels this season during their league runners-up campaign.
