By GRAHAM POWELL
Leader sportswriter
The Sylvan Hills senior American Legion team’s inability to produce runs early against Russellville’s Post 20 team put the Bruins in too big of a hole to climb out of as Russellville left Mike Bromley Field in Sherwood Thursday with a 7-3 victory.
Russellville starting pitcher Jace Power, who earned the win with seven strikeouts in the complete game performance, kept the Bruins off the bases for the majority of the game. But in the second inning, Sylvan Hills had a chance to put runs on the board with the bases loaded and no outs.
The next ball was hit to the pitcher’s mound for a double play at home and first base, followed by a strikeout. Sylvan Hills didn’t produce a run until the fifth inning, and after four, Russellville held a comfortable 5-0 lead.
ball tonight,” said Sylvan Hills coach Brandon Eller. “Baseball is a funny game. If you make mistakes or you don’t do things right, it’s hard to win. We had the bases loaded with no outs (in the second inning), and we hit into a double play and don’t even score one. You have to score there.”
The Bruins did rally in the fifth, scoring three runs with two outs in the inning, which started when Jimmy Sandefur hit a stand-up double to deep center field. Leadoff hitter Greg Atchison and Dylan Boone both walked to load the bases, and Mitch Meyer hit an RBI-infield single that bounced off the pitcher’s glove.
Sandefur scored as the ball rolled between first and second base. Cleanup hitter L.J. Wallace then walked to bring Atchison home, and Connor Eller singled to the gap in left field, driving in Boone on the play.
Russellville, though, wasn’t going to allow Sylvan Hills to seize the momentum. In the next inning, Russellville added two more runs to set the final margin. Post 20 leadoff hitter Jordan Hans reached on an E5 to start the inning.
Jonathan Hawkins then singled to the gap in right field, advancing Hans to third. Hans scored on a groundout to shortstop by Corey Hottinger, and Hawkins scored the final run of the evening on a stand-up double to the wall in right-center field by cleanup hitter Corey Scheide.
Sylvan Hills has been one of those teams this summer that often starts slow in games, but can turn it on in the later innings and almost score at will. It just didn’t happen Thursday night, and the loss makes it that much more noticeable to Eller.
“I guess it’s a problem and a blessing,” Eller said. “We’ve been able to fight late all year, but we let ourselves get behind a lot. I don’t know if it takes us a while to get going. The pitcher (Russellville) threw tonight was pretty good, but we have to compete a little better. We have to make plays.”
Connor Eller led the Bruins at the plate with two hits and a RBI. Wallace, Meyer, Sandefur and Blake Holmes each had a hit apiece. Sylvan Hills will travel to Little Rock on Monday and Bryant Tuesday before starting the Zone district tournament on Friday.
