HOT SPRINGS, Ar. — Russellville roared out to a 7-0 lead in the third inning Thursday at Majestic Park’s Babe Ruth Field en route to a 10-3 win over the Texarkana Razorbacks in the Arkansas State American Legion tournament.
Russellville and the Razorbacks are in Pool D while Fort Smith blanked North Little Rock, 12-0. The top two teams in each of the four pools will play for the title next week at UCA in Conway.
Friday’s schedule resumes at noon with Texarkana facing Fort Smith. North Little Rock plays Russellville at 2:30 p.m. Lake Hamilton and Arkadelphia clash at 5 p.m., with Bryant and Greenwood playing at 7:30 p.m.
Bryant defeated Arkadelphia in Pool C, 6-1. Greenwood survived a scare against Lake Hamilton, 2-1.
“We couldn’t get a timely hit; we had runners in scoring position the last four innings,” said Lake Hamilton coach Matthew Weigand. “Greenwood was a good team, with great defense, pitching and clutch hitting. It was a good ball game. We played seven innings in less than two hours. We got two tough games ahead of us with Arkadephia and Bryant.”
Vega leads Russellville with three hits
Greenwood scored both of its runs off losing pitcher Brent Davis in the third. Jaxon Cole singled to left to start things. Austin Bircher, batting ninth in the order, doubled off the left field fence. Back-to-back sacrifice flies made it 2-0.
Winning pitcher Noah Patrick held Lake Hamilton hitless the first three innings. Caleb Rouse broke up the no-hitter in the fourth. Rouse was sacrificed to second, moved up on a grounder and scored on Kohen Manley’s single.
Shortstop Drew Vega banged out three hits in leading Russellville to victory. Dalton Crumley and Wyatt Brown contributed two hit each for the winners.
Waylor Woodell and Leland Garrett led the Razorbacks with two hits each. Braxton Robertson, Vernon Wilder and Josh Brown had Texarkana’s other hits. Aiden Kennon was the winning pitcher. He scattered six hits, walking one and striking out nine in six innings. Blake Dawson got the final three outs. Southpaw Clinton Wiley suffered the loss.