Conway makes most of final out

Down by three runs and down to a final out, Conway's Jordan Wicks was anything but down and out about the Wampus Cats' comeback chances. Conway scored four runs in the top of the seventh Friday to stun the Bryant Hornets 6-5 in the semifinals of the Central Arkansas Invitational at Little Rock Christian. Conway (7-3) will host Morrilton (6-8) at 12:30 p.m. in today's championship game. Wicks, a 6-1 senior, singled in two runs during the rally, and senior James Martindale followed with another run-scoring single to complete the rally. "I've got a lot of confidence in my teammates," Wicks said. "They work their butts off, and they know when the situation comes our mentality is just to pass it on to the next guy. We never think we're out of it. I had a lot of confidence in them and I knew I'd get a chance." Conway collected five of its 11 hits with two outs in the seventh inning. "We try to instill in our guys that as long as you have an out left that you've still got a chance," Conway Coach Noel Boucher said. "Body language is everything. Don't hang your head and think, 'OK, we don't have this one.' Keep working and see what happens." Bryant (9-3) had built a 5-2 lead and freshman reliever Austin Ledbetter retired the first two batters he faced in the top of the seventh. But the next seven Conway batters reached base. Senior Parker Gavazzi, who led Conway by going 3 for 4 and singled in the Cats' first two runs, started the rally with a double. After back-to-back walks to Jack Stroth and Matt Loyd to load the bases, Wicks hit a ground ball that found its way into right field. "[Ledbetter] threw a change-up," said Wicks, who struck out 11 and allowed two hits in Thursday's quarterfinal victory over Little Rock Christian. "It wasn't a bad pitch. It just happened to find a hole." Bryant brought in junior Logan Catton to relieve Ledbetter, but Catton threw a wild pitch that brought in the tying run. Martindale followed with a single that broke the tie. "We had two outs in that last inning," Bryant Coach Travis Queck said. "[Conway] did its job. We just didn't do ours. We didn't throw strikes, and we didn't execute defensively." Conway senior reliever Jackson Hull picked up the victory, giving up 1 run, 2 singles and 3 walks in the final 5 innings. Bryant starter Will McEntire went 6 innings while giving up 6 hits and 2 unearned runs. He struck out 2, walked 2 and benefited from two double plays. "That guy has done a great job all season," Queck said of McEntire. "He's been pegged for two losses that really haven't been his fault. We tell our guys every day that it's not necessarily what the other team does, it's what we do to prevent them from doing. We didn't make the plays." Hull surrendered a one-out walk to Ledbetter in the bottom of the seventh inning, but the Conway reliever got junior Coby Greiner to fly out to shallow center and senior Brandon Hoover to ground back to the mound. Bryant was limited to six hits, and no Hornets player had more than one. Senior Matthew Sandidge doubled in a run in Bryant's three-run first inning. Senior Myers Buck singled in a run in the third, and Hoover's sacrifice bunt in the fifth scored Ledbetter, who had reached on a walk.

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CONWAY MAKES MOST OF FINAL OUT

TIM COOPER

Arkansas Democrat | 3/24/2018