Marion baseball sweeps West Memphis in doubleheader
Patriots too much for Blue Devils on the diamond
Marion School District Marion head baseball coach Pete Prater has preached all spring that his team needs to approach every game the same way.
On Tuesday night at First National Bank of Eastern Arkansas Stadium, it seemed like his message started to sink in.
Marion improved to 20-5 overall and 9-1 in 5A East play by sweeping Crittenden County rival West Memphis 17-0 and 16-1, each game ending under the mercy rule after five innings on Senior Night.
The Patriots pounded out 26 hits and took advantage of eight Blue Devil (4-17, 0-10) errors to down West Memphis for the ninth consecutive time. The West Memphis sweep gave Marion seven straight victories this season.
It’s Marion’s third straight 20-victory season under fifth-year coach Pete Prater, and the Patriots have never won fewer than 17 games under Prater.
Marion remains tied for first place in the 5A East with Jonesboro (19-5-1, 9-1) following its sweep of West Memphis. The Patriots host Batesville (14-5, 7-3) on Tuesday, April 26 before wrapping up league action on May 3 at Greene County Tech (15-5, 7-3). The Batesville and Greene County Tech doubleheaders will begin at 4:30, and the Tech doubleheader will be streamed live on MarionPatriots.com and on the Marion Patriots Activities Network mobile app.
Marion scored eight times in the bottom of the first of game No. 1 and never looked back. Eight out of nine Patriots logged at least one hit, and four Marion starters registered two knocks or more. The first eight batters reached to start the game, and the hosts led 7-0 before West Memphis recorded an out.
Marion lead-off man Gage Watson started the rally when he walked, setting the stage for scoring extra-base hits from Kaleb Catt (2-3 in Game No. 1 with three runs scored and an RBI), Dylan Kight (2-3 with an RBI and a run), Chase Armstrong (3-4 with four RBI and three runs), Luke Bullins (2-3, four RBI, and two runs), Ben Gerrard (1-4 with two runs scored and an RBI), and an RBI single from Tyler McGinnis.
The Pats followed with three runs in the second, when Kight and Armstrong reached to lead off the inning and Bullins plated Kight on a fielder’s choice.
Senior Payton Voyles (1-3 with a run and an RBI) grounded out to score Armstrong and Gerrard chased in Bullins with a single.
McGinnis started and threw four innings, issuing four walks while recording three strikeouts and just one hit.
Voyles worked the fifth, striking out two Blue Devils and allowing just one hit.
An Armstrong double scored Catt for Marion’s lone tally of the third inning and the Pats buried West Memphis with a fiverun fourth. Connor Brinkley’s single scored Gerrard, and another Armstrong two-bagger plated Brinkley and Catt. A Bullins double scored Kight to cap the scoring in the lid-lifter.
The short break following the first game did little to slow the Marion bats, as the Pats struck for five runs in the top of the first of the nightcap. Watson (1-2 with two runs and an RBI in the second game) led off with a home run on the third pitch of the game. Catt walked, stole second and third, and scored on Kight’s (1-2 with two RBI and a run scored) double for a 2– 0 lead. An Armstrong sacrifice fly brought Kight around. Bullins (2-2 with two runs) singled and scored when Gerrard (1-2 with two runs and an RBI) reached on an error.
Gerrard stole third and scored on McGinnis’s (2-2 with three RBI) single.
Brinkley, Daxton Davis, Connor Taylor, Landon Miller, and Davis York combined to throw five innings of two-hit ball for Marion. Those five hurlers recorded eight strikeouts and issued zero walks.
Brinkley led off the top of the second with a double and came to the plate on
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Photo by Londa Hamrick BASEBALL (cont.)
Kight’s fielder’s choice and the Pats led 6-0 after two.
Gerrard struck a double to plate Bullins in the third, and McGinnis followed with a two-run double that tallied Gerrard and Voyles to account for the scoring.
Taylor (2-2 with three RBI and two runs) swatted a triple in the fourth to score Slade Inman and Matthew Kearney. Taylor came down on Carson Catt’s single and Catt later scored on a passed ball.
West Memphis broke through in the bottom of the fourth when Wade Rogers (1-2 with an RBI) chased in Chandler Rogers (1-2 with a run) with a single.
Davis York walked, stole second, and advanced to third on a passed ball before Kearney plated York when Kearney reached on an error.
Taylor tallied Kearney with a single and a Miller groundout brought Taylor around to cap the scoring bonanza for the Patriots.
