The McDonald County 18U baseball team won two games, lost one and had Mother Nature claim the final at the Jack Link's Mid-South Exposure held June 20-23 at Tyson Park in Springdale, Ark.
After dropping a 5-1 decision to one team from the Naturals Baseball Academy to open the tournament on June 20, McDonald County came back with wins over two other NBA teams on June 21 and 22 before having its June 23 game canceled due to rain.
McDonald County took advantage of 12 walks and hit by pitches to score 10 runs on just five hits on the way to a 10-9 win in its second game against an NBA team.
Kameron Hopkins got the win in relief of Ethan Francisco. Francisco allowed six runs on five hits and two walks in the first inning before Hopkins took over in the second with no outs and runners on second and third.
Hopkins got out of the inning with just one scoring and then allowed just two runs the rest of the way for the win.
McDonald County scored three runs in the first on one hit, a double by Sampson Boles, four walks and two hit batters.
McDonald County closed to 7-5 in the third on an error, two walks and a hit by Danny Grider before scoring five runs in the fourth to take a 10-7 lead.
The big hit of the inning was a two-out single by Lett that drove in a pair of runs. Cole Martin and Bo Leach also had RBI hits in the inning.
Lett, Grider, Martin, Leach and Omar Manuel all had one hit to McDonald County.
Hopkins finished by allowing two runs on three hits and five walks while striking out five in five innings.
McDonald County followed that win with a 4-3 win over NBA on June 22.
Parker Toney allowed three runs in five innings for the win. Brandon Armstrong retired all six batters he faced for the save.
McDonald County trailed 3-2 in the sixth before scoring two runs on two walks and a triple by Martin.
Martin, Francisco, Leach, Wyatt Jordan and Rylee Boyd led McDonald County at the plate with one hit each.
Boles was the pitcher of record in McDonald County's 5-1 loss in the opener. The senior-to-be at MCHS gave up two unearned runs in the second and single runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings before Nevin Price got the final two outs of the fifth and shut out NBA in the sixth.
McDonald County's only run came in the fourth when Rickman was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Martin had two hits to lead McDonald County while Boles and Manuel had one each.
Seneca
McDonald County split a doubleheader at Seneca on June 18.
McDonald County scored six runs in the sixth inning of the opener to pull out a 6-3 win.
Hopkins and Boles led off the inning with back-to-back infield hits. Manuel and Price followed with walks for the first run before two errors led to three runs. After Rickman bunted for a single, Martin drove in the final two runs with a single to left.
Toney got the win, allowing three runs in five innings before Armstrong got the save with two shutout innings.
McDonald County was led by Martin with two hits and Jordan, Hopkins, Boles and Rickman with one each.
Seneca scored the game's only run in the bottom of the sixth for a 1-0 win in the nightcap.
Francisco and Boles worked two shutout innings each before Seneca scored the game's only run off Hopkins in the sixth.
McDonald County was held to singles by Hopkins in the first and Manuel in the fifth.
McDonald County was at Lamar on June 25 and at Nevada on June 26 before hosting the Lee Smith Shootout on June 28-29.
Sports on 06/27/2019