By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The North Pulaski Falcons picked up a pair of conference wins last Friday, beating Little Rock McCellan 20-5 and 23-3 at Dupree Park in Jacksonville.
Falcon coach Michael Dean put two seniors on the mound for Senior Night, and both came through with one-hitters.
Jordan Walters pitched all three innings of the game-one win, striking out five and giving up just one earned run.
The Falcons got all the runs they needed in the first two innings, scoring 11 in the first and nine in the second. Fred Thomas and Tyler Montgomery each went 2 for 2 with a double and Hunter McPherson got two hits and scored three runs.
In game two, the Falcons went 17 of 32 at the plate as a team, but took a little longer to reach the mercy-rule margin.
Thomas took the mound in the nightcap and threw four of the game’s five innings. He struck out seven and gave up no earned runs.
He also showcased a knuckleball in his career-ending appearance.
“He’s not one of our main starters, but he’s going to throw strikes and be smart,” said Dean. “Against a team like McClellan, if you’ll just throw strikes you’re going to be OK. Fred’s not going to try to overdo anything, but he did throw a knuckleball that was out of this world. I asked him why he didn’t throw that all year. We could’ve used that at times.”
Thomas was also 3 for 4 at the plate with two doubles, as was teammate Aaron Rambo. Caleb McMunn went 2 for 3 with one double and Ean Collie went 2 for 4 with a double. Collie also threw the last inning and put the Lions down in order.
The Falcons lost a heartbreaker 13-8 to Lonoke at home on Monday in a nonconference matchup.
They led that game 8-5 going into the last inning, but three hits, three walks, two errors and two hit batters aided the Jackrabbits’ game-winning rally.
“That team went undefeated in their conference, in their conference tournament and has just been wearing people out, and for six innings, we completely out-played them,” Dean said.
“In the seventh inning we just fall apart. It’s just typical of how our season has gone. We’ve shown at times how good we could’ve been, but we’re too inconsistent.”