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| The Carlisle Bison are headed to the Class 2A state tournament after beating Pangburn 6-3 on Friday. (Photo courtesy of Sara Seidenschwarz) |
By Mark Buffalo
Staff Writer
CARLISLE — For the first time in five years and the eighth time in school history, the Carlisle Bison baseball team is headed to the state tournament.
Carlisle (17-9) rallied from a 2-0 deficit to beat Pangburn 6-3 in the first round of the central regional tournament at Rockefeller Park on Friday. With the win, Carlisle will play in the Class 2A state tournament next week in Mountain Home.
“We haven’t really talked a whole lot about wins this season but we knew one of the goals was to make it to the state tournament,” said first-year Bison coach coach Steven Tew. “It feels good to accomplish that and we hope to keep it going from there.”
Pangburn, which beat the Bison 13-3 on April 17, scored two runs in the bottom of the second and the score remained the same until the top of the fifth.
Carlisle’s Cody Brown and Ben Orton both scored runs to tie the game at 2-2.
The Bison then plated four runs in the top of the sixth to take a 6-2 lead. Scoring were Noah Seidenschwarz, Brown, Orton and Blake White.
Pangburn added a run in the bottom of the sixth to make the score 6-3. The Tigers had a change to score in the bottom of the seventh but left runners at first and second to end the game.
White got the win, giving up three runs in six innings. He struck out seven while allowing nine hits and five walks. Brown pitched a scoreless seventh.
“Blake really didn’t have his best stuff early on but he batted up there,” Tew said. “They got something going in the second but he did a good job limiting the damage and giving up only two runs that inning.
“Around the fourth, something clicked for him and he started to command his pitches a little better. After that moment, we were able to start spotting fastballs and throwing curveballs and change ups for strikes. It helped keep Pangburn’s hitters off balance.”
The Bison had seven hits but also left 12 runners on base. Brown, Orton and Ian Seidenschwarz had two hits each.
“Offensively, we felt like we had opportunities but couldn’t get a big hit to score any of them,” Tew said. “We just kept grinding and kept having good at bats until we got two across in the fifth and four more in the sixth.
“I was proud of how they handled themselves during those tough innings. A good example of it was really Braiden Jenkins. He had a good at bat with two outs and runners on second and third. It ended in a strikeout but it also did two important things for us. It rolled the lineup over to the top for the next inning and it helped run the pitch count up for Pangburn’s guy, which led to them having to go to the bullpen. Braiden was a little down on himself after that one but he didn’t carry it over to the field.”
Jenkins dove for a fly ball in the gap on the first pitch of the next inning for an out.
“He made of the best plays we’ve had all year by diving to the gap,” Tew said of Jenkins. “It was a big moment and got us fired up.”
The Bison will play Conway St. Joseph on Sunday in the semifinals of the regional at Rockefeller Park.
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