By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
Matt Evans threw one of his strongest games of the early summer on Friday night, scattering seven Morrilton hits and striking out 10 in a 5-1 win for the Cabot Community Bank Senior Legion team at Conrade Field.
The home crowd was treated to a solid win, as well as a good show by a flamboyant plate umpire, who called out players while doing a little dance.
“Coming in tonight, I thought I had a little more pitching than I had,” Cabot coach Jay Darr said. “But a couple of guys have sore arms, so I really needed Matt to go the distance tonight, and he stepped up and did that. He threw very few pitches, and scattered the hits, so he did a good job.”
Matt Turner and Jackson Chism led off the first with singles, though Turner was thrown out on the play by right fielder Mill Faulkner. After Chase Thompson reached on an error, and Cabot tied the game at 1-1 on Evans’ RBI single.
Cabot took its first lead in the bottom of the second with a pair of runs that made it 3-1.
In all, Morrilton committed three errors for the game, compared to only one for Cabot. Both teams tallied seven hits.
Cabot put it away in the bottom of the fifth. A single by Powell Bryant started things off, and Sam Bates reached on an error, which allowed Bryant to score. Bates came around on a long double by Ben Wainwright.
Bates tied the game 1-1 in the bottom of the first when his triple plated Drew Burks, who had singled to left.
“It’s a learning process,” Darr said. “Some of these kids I had last year when I coached the younger kids. We’re learning each other and getting a feel for each other. The longer we stick with it, the more we’ll come together before it’s all over, but there’s always growing pains early on.”
Wainwright was 2 of 3 with a double and a RBI, while Bates was 1 of 2 with a triple and two RBI. For Morrilton, Landon Jones was 3 of 4 with two runs scored.
The Community Bank Junior Legion team ran away with the opening game over Morrilton with a 17-2 blowout on Friday. The game was run-ruled after only three innings after a second-inning eruption by Cabot that took them through the order, turning a 1-1 tie into a rout. C. J. Jacoby earned the win at the mound for Cabot with another dominating effort, with Andrew Reynolds closing things out.
“They came out, and they gave us some trouble early on,” Cabot Junior Legion coach Andy Runyon said. “They hit the ball well. I mean, they came out and they were aggressive. C. J. has really gone unscathed this year. He’s thrown great and given hitters fits.
“He was a little bit up in the zone, but they hit hard. We made a couple of errors, and they got up on us, but our bats took over from there.”
Runyan said the slow start at the plate for his team was not out of the ordinary, nor was the big finish.
“When we show up, and we play our brand of baseball, we can swing it pretty well,” Runyan said. “We’re averaging a little over nine runs a game now, and when we swing it like we’re capable of, we can put up big numbers.” Runyan also praised catcher Tyler Carter’s efforts for the game both offensively and defensively.
