By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
Jacksonville had made a habit recently of winning games at its last at bat. North Little Rock turned those tables Thursday night, beating Jacksonville 5-4 with a base hit in the bottom of the seventh inning at Burns Park’s Dejanis Memorial Field.
A controversial rule, but the right call, aided NLR greatly in the fifth inning of its win. With a runner on first and no outs, NLR’s Alex Filbert hit what likely would have been an easy double play to second base. The ball, however, hit the umpire. Jacksonville second baseman Kenny Cummings retrieved the ball in plenty of time to throw the runner out at first, and thought he did so, but the home-plate umpire called dead ball, and put the Colt runner, who was already walking to the dugout, back on first base. He ruled, correctly, that when a ball strikes an umpire who is inside the base paths, it is a dead ball and everyone is safe.
“It was the right call,” Jacksonville coach Bob Hickingbotham said. “That’s just part of it. We had our chances too. We hit the ball hard several times and they just went right to people. We got hits twice with two runners in scoring position and were only able to score one run because they hit it so hard and right to the left fielder. It was just one of those games where we just didn’t get the breaks.”
The umpire confessed during the game, “If there is a rule that might need to be changed, that’s it.”
That was the rule, and instead of two outs and no one on, it was no outs and two on. The next batter, Tyson Dackett, took advantage, and hit a line-drive, two-run triple down the right-field line on the next at bat, giving the Colts a 2-1 lead.
The rally wasn’t over. After Jeff Hopkins popped out to second, Brian Johnson walked and David Downs struck out. But with two on, leadoff hitter John Chapman his a two-run double to centerfield to make it 4-1.
Ever-resilient Gwatney chipped away from there. They added one run in the sixth inning with the help of two NLR mistakes. Patrick Castleberry reached on an error, moved to third on a single by Jesse Harbin, and scored on a wild pitch.
In the seventh, Jacksonville tied it when Cummings deep fly to left field scored Austin Allen and left runners on second and third. NLR walked Castleberry to load the bases with two outs, leaving a force out at any base. But Harbin singled to left to score Jacob Abrahamson and tie the game.
But it NLR’s turn for the late heroics.
Harbin, who went the distance and took the loss, got a fly-out, walked Johnson and struck out Downs, brining Chapman to the plate with two outs. He singled to put runners on the corner.
Blake Eisenring then hit a hard grounder to shortstop, where Abrahamson failed to get a glove on it as it rolled into left field, allowing Johnson to score the game winning run.
It was just the second loss of the season for the Gwatney AAA team to go with 10 wins, but the strength of teams in the zone made it a big loss. The NLR win put the Colts alone in first place, and dropped Gwatney into a tie with Cabot for second. Cabot and Jacksonville have split their series, and each team won by nine runs. Meaning if the season were over, it would have to go to a deep level of tiebreakers to find the zone runner up.
While Jacksonville dropped to 10-2, the win gave NLR an 11-1 overall record, with its only zone loss so far also coming against Cabot. NLR also split with Cabot, and each team won their respective games by one run.
Harbin gave up seven hits in seven innings of work on the mound. He struck out seven and walked three. He also went 2 for 4 at the plate with an RBI.
Earlier in the week Jacksonville beat Russellville 13-2. They play the Cogswell Motors team again today, starting a run of eight-straight days of games that ends next Sunday in the annual Gwatney Chevrolet Fourth of July Classic.
