By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
SHERIDAN – Sylvan Hills got a great effort on the mound from Dylan Boone, and they needed every bit of it. The Bruins slipped away with a 1-0 win over Hot Springs Lakeside in the first round of the Sheridan Wood Bat Classic on Thursday.
Boone threw seven innings, giving up three hits while striking out eight and walking none. Five of the last eight outs were strikeouts by Boone.
“He threw a great game,” Sylvan Hills coach Brandon Eller said. “He threw strikes and got people out. He got hit by a pitch pretty hard in the third or fourth inning and kept going. He was a warrior today.”
The Bruins weren’t as impressive on offense. They also managed just three hits, but unlike Boone, Lakeside pitcher Jacob Bradshaw plunked three batters and walk two others to give the Bruins opportunities to score.
“If we’re going to win games consistently, we’re going to have to execute better than this,” Eller said. “We didn’t execute well at all today. We have to be able to get the bunt down, especially in a wood bat game. We’ve got to do a better job of manufacturing runs than we did today.”
Sylvan Hills got its leadoff hitter on base in the second, third, fourth and sixth innings, but only managed to score in the second.
Austin Spears was hit by a pitch to start that inning. Brandon Farrow put down the only successful sacrifice bunt of the game to move Spears to second base. After a strikeout, Jimmy Sandefur and Greg Atchison got back-to-back base hits with Atchison’s shot into left field scoring Spears.
Bradshaw hit Boone to start the third and hit Farrow to start the fourth, but the Bruins went down in order after each opportunity. Catcher Lance Hunter walked to start the sixth, but his courtesy runner Corey Jones was caught stealing.
The win lifted Sylvan Hills to 6-3 on the season. The Bruins played Texarkana on Friday after The Leader’s deadlines. They face Benton at 10 a.m. today to close out pool play.
Two more wins will put the Bruins in tournament play on Sunday.
