Things didn’t start our way today in Midland as the Roadrunner Junior All Stars dropped their opening Regional tournament game to Arkansas 8-7. RRLL managed 8 hits over the 7 innings, but left runners on base in key situations, and had some costly errors.
RRLL opened the scoring in the top of the second inning with a Sam Segotta triple over the center fielder’s head and a sacrifice fly by Andrew Dellalonga. Arkansas answered with 3 runs in the bottom of the second aided by a past ball and a bad throw from third base on a grounder. The 3rd inning saw RR go 3 up and 3 down with a groundout and two easy fly balls. In the bottom of the 3rd Arkansas put one more run on the board with 3 hits and a fielders choice. RR picked up two runs in the top of the 4th on an Addison Bell single, Sam Segotta reached on an error by Arkansas third baseman, then he made an over throw of first on Dellalonga’s grounder, allowing Bell and Segotta to score.
Arkansas scored 3 runs in the bottom of the fourth as they led off with two hits and a walk. Two fielders choice grounders and a past ball allowed all 3 of the runners to score, giving Arkansas a 7 – 3 lead.
RR responded in the top of the 5th with an Andrew Groves single up the middle, and a hard single through the shortstop-third base hole by Breckan Hunkle. Dalton Bowers reached first on an error by the shortstop, loading the bases. Addison Bell then stroked a single over short to score both runners. This after a 10 minute delay while he changed pants in the dugout. Apparently an earlier slide opened up a cut on his knee, making his pants bloody. The umpire didn’t like it and told him to change. He came out with a slightly smaller pair, and the local girls said he looked better. After a Segotta groundout, Victor Guevara lined a single scoring two more runs and tying the game at 7 – 7. Roadrunner was right back in the game.
In the top of the 6th, RRLL’s Matt Givens led off with an infield single, followed by a sacrifice bunt by first baseman Travis Tillery, moving Givens to second. Andrew Groves stuck out for the second out, followed by consecutive walks by Hunkle and Bowers, loading the bases for Addison Bell, the leading hitter on the team. Unfortunately Bell struck out swinging on a fastball to end the threat.
The bottom of the 6th saw Arkansas get the leadoff runner on base on a throwing error by Hunkle at short. He moved to second on a fielders choice ground ball, then moved to third with a stolen base. A sacrifice fly to right fielder Matt Givens allowed the final, and ultimately game winning, run to score.
In the 7th for RR, Segotta led off with a groundout, and Andrew Dellalonga followed with a bloop single to right. Victor Guevara then grounded into a double play to short to end the game.
Starting pitcher Dalton Bowers pitched a solid game scattering 9 hits with 3 walks, but his defense made some critical mistakes that could have swung the game the other way. In addition RR failed to get the timely hits they needed to score more runs, leaving 6 baserunners on. RR finished the game with 8 hits and only 2 walks. Arkansas took a different pitching strategy in the game, rotating all pitchers out after 20 pitches in an attempt to save them all for game 2.
We now have Saturday off as we wait for our next opponent, the loser of the game between Midland, TX and Mississippi. Our next game is Sunday morning at 10 am.
