SHERIDAN BLASTS YOUNGER KELLS

By Troy Schulte/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF

SHERIDAN — Experience won out during Pine Bluff Kells’ A American Legion Zone 4 Tournament game against Sheridan on Saturday.

Playing a Sheridan team whose lineup was chock full of players who were two months removed from a Class 6A State Tournament appearance, Kells allowed at least four runs in each inning in an eventual 21-9 loss in five innings.

Kells (14-7) will play a losers’ bracket game against Hope, which beat Hot Springs Lakeside 10-0 on Saturday, at 2 p.m. today at Oliver Williams Field.

“Our kids always play hard. Some nights we just may not be good enough,” Kells coach Steve Strahan said. “Tonight that was the case.”

A day after scoring 15 runs on just two hits in a first-round win over Magnolia, Kells eclipsed that total in the first inning. Hunter Colson, Nathan Lee, Scott Scifres and Caleb Kelley each had hits in the first inning and Colson, Lee and Scifres scored to take an early 3-0 lead.

But Ryan Bowlin, who was making one of few pitching appearances of the summer, couldn’t hold onto the lead.

Sheridan scored six runs on four hits in the first inning, as the first four batters all reached and scored. Kurt Stamper and Brandon Rieve had RBI singles and Nick Ware hit an RBI double. Sheridan scored six more runs in the second inning, including three when Stamper and Zach Perkins hit back-to-back home runs.

“We had a great approach to the plate, the guys really bought in,”

Sheridan coach Matt Weigand said. “We’ve been working all week at it and they executed perfectly.”

All six of Sheridan’s runs in the second inning came after Bowlin got Cameron Holland to ground out to Justin Dardenne at third base and Sawyer Dunigan to line out to Bracey Stephens at second, beginning a trend of two-out runs that helped end the game before the regulated seven innings.

Sheridan also scored two runs in the first with two outs and finished the game having scored 17 of its 21 runs under the same circumstances.

Kells tried to keep the game going passed the fifth inning when it scored six runs in the fourth. After a strikeout Colson, was hit by a pitch to score Kelley and Lee was walked to score Stephens. Two batters later, Mason Rush walked to score another run and Stephens’ single later in the inning made it 17-9 after four innings. But Sheridan scored four more in the bottom of the fourth to provide the final score. Colson and Lee each scored twice for Kells, while Rush, Scifres, Kelley, Stephens and Phillips each scored once. Kelley had a pair of singles in Kells’ six-run fourth. Rieve had a pair of hits and scored four runs for Sheridan, while Moore and Perkins each scored three times. Stamper had two singles in addition to his home run, and earned the win after pitching two shutout innings after the three-run first.