By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
SHERIDAN – Jackson-ville’s junior American Legion team was ousted from the state tournament on Sunday with a 13-1 loss to tournament host Sheridan. It was the second blowout loss for the Gwatney squad since winning its opening-round game 16-12 over Genoa Central. On Saturday, Gwatney lost 14-1 to Zone 4’s top seeded Texarkana.
All three Zone 4 teams made it to the semifinals. Genoa Central faced Jonesboro Fat City on Monday while Sheridan faced Texarkana.
Fat City and Texarkana played for the state championship Tuesday night in Sheridan.
Jacksonville simply ran out of pitching. Gwatney’s No. 1 starter in the pitching rotation, Derek St. Clair, has been nursing a sore arm for the past several games and his time on the mound has been limited. He made an appearance in the second inning against Sheridan, but left with arm trouble after facing just six batters.
Blake Perry and James Tucker handled most of the work, but weren’t able to hold off the strong hitting Zone 4 teams.
Several fielding errors compounded the problem and Gwatney found itself in deep holes early in both state-tournament losses.
Sheridan held a 10-0 lead in the middle of the secondinning before Gwatney scored its only run of the game in the bottom of the same inning. Justin Abbott singled to left field and advanced to third on an errant pickoff throw from the mound. Greg Jones then hit a sacrifice fly to centerfield that scored Abbott.
Abbott’s base hit was the first of just two for Gwatney in the game.
Sheridan’s first three batters got base hits without hitting the ball out of the infield. Tucker got the next two batters out the Sheridan’s lead was only 1-0 with two runners on base. But six-hole hitter Lathan Wylie finally made solid contact, a line drive, RBI double to right-centerfield for a 3-1, and the floodgates were open.
Another single scored another run and a walk left runners on first and second. Nine-hole hitter Keaton Ramsay then singled to shallow right field that should have just left the bases loaded, but an error fielding the ball on the hop allowed one run to score, and an error fielding the throw to the infield allowed another.
In the second inning, an error with one out kickstarted Sheridan’s rally that gave them a 10-0 lead. An infield single scored one run and a walk put two runners on base.
After a strikeout, a passed ball made it 2-0 and a two-RBI hit to right field gave Sheridan the 10-run lead, prompting coach David St. Clair to bring Derek St. Clair to the mound.
He fanned the first batter he faced to get out of the jam. He gave up one hit, no runs and struck out two more in the third inning. In the fourth, John Strange drove a single to centerfield on the first pitch and St. Clair immediately signaled to the dugout that his arm was hurt.
The Gwatney Junior squad finished the season with a record of 18-9. Most of the lineup, including all the starting pitching rotation, returns to the junior level next season.
