Going yard : Lloyd’s homer, Beeks’ relief work help Prairie Grove hand Elkins its first loss
Posted on Saturday, March 29, 2008
ELKINS — Brad Lloyd’s fifthinning homer broke a 4-4 tie Friday evening and lifted Prairie Grove to a 5-4 win over Elkins on the Elks’ home field. The Elks were three starters shy of a full lineup but coach Jeff Eddleman found few excuses for Elkins ’ first loss of the year.
“ We were out three starters for an FBLA trip and it showed, but I still felt confident we were good enough to win the ballgame, ” he said.
Jalen Beeks relieved Colten McCaslin in the fourth and pitched four shutout innings to get the win for the Tigers. The ninth-grader allowed three hits, struck out six and forced a pop-up for the final out when the Elks had the tying run on third.
“ I thought Beeks did a great job of coming in that fourth inning and finishing the game off for us, ” said Prairie Grove coach Derek Dougan. “ He looked pretty cool out there for a freshman. He didn’t get rattled and there were a couple of times where he probably could have. ”
Elkins starter Nick Stowers mowed down five straight Tigers to open the game but Nick McCarty ended the streak with a two-run blast to give Prairie Grove a 2-0 lead. Elkins (7-1 ) cut the lead in half in the bottom of the inning after Blake Bailey singled and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Weston Curry.
Prairie Grove (4-2 ) increased its lead to 4-1 when Dylan Brooks scored on a passed ball and Jesse Ketzler crossed on an RBI single by McCaslin. The Tigers missed the chance for a big inning by leaving the bases juiced and Elkins took advantage.
The Elks scored three runs in the bottom of the third to tie the game. Stowers, Steven Whitney and Bailey hit singles in the inning to get Elkins even on the scoreboard. Elkins stranded two runners in the inning and nine for the ballgame.
“ A few errors hurt us a little but we still had the opportunity to win it, but we didn’t get it done, ” Eddleman said.
Davy Copeland came in for Stowers to start the fourth and allowed just three hits the rest of the way. Unfortunately for Copeland and the Elks, one of the hits was a game-winning rope to leftcenter by Lloyd.
“ We did a good job of getting runs across the plate, ” Dougan said. “ We had a couple of power hitters get up there and hit a couple of home runs. ”
Dougan will take the win but the number of strikeouts has him concerned.
“[Thursday night ] we played Farmington and struck out 15 times and I believe today we struck out 15 times as well. That’s just way too many. We’ve got to do a better job of putting the ball in play, ” he said.
The Tigers travel to Union Christian on Monday while the Elks go to Pea Ridge on Tuesday.
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