STAR CITY — Dumas already clinched a spot in the Class 4A state baseball tournament with a win on Friday, but John Shepherd wanted to get a good seed for his team.
Shepherd did his job and held Pulaski Academy to four hits on Saturday to get Dumas to the 4A South Regional championship game with a 5-2 win, guaranteeing the Bobcats a No. 1 or No. 2 seed for the state tournament.
“He just came out and threw strikes,” Dumas coach Austin McKnight said. “He had faith in his defense and he has had it all year.”
Shepherd struck out five batters and walked five batters, but three of the walks were intentional to Pulaski Academy’s Blake Wiggins.
Shepherd said he felt good on the mound on Saturday.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“I was just going out there and trying to hit my spots and stay consistent,” he said. “Just tried to get some better seeding and go deep in the game.”
The Bobcats (15-2) benefited from the Bruins’ (15-13) mistakes.
Ryan Miller reached first base due to a throwing error by Wiggins to lead off the inning. Three batters later, Miller scored on Jacob Bishop’s RBI double off the left field wall for a 1-0 lead.
With one out in the third inning, Rankin Teeter reached on a throwing error by third baseman Nic Shields and then he scored on Matthew Miller’s ground-rule double. Matthew Miller would later score from third when Ryan Miller was caught in a run-down between first and second.
The Bruins got on the board in the fourth on Colin Castleberry’s single to right field that scored Andy Bingham to cut Dumas’ lead to 3-1.
In the fifth inning, Dumas’ Paul Weatherford reached first to lead off the inning on another error by Wiggins. Trey Winchester then got to first on a throwing error by Castleberry.
“We couldn’t get the bats going, but the main problem was defense,” Pulaski Academy coach Billy Adams said. “We make plays behind our pitcher and it’s a different ball game.”
McKnight said the team took advantage of the Bruins’ errors.
“When you get momentum, you have to build off of it,” he said. “Our players are relaxed in those situations because we have worked on them in games and practice. The kids did great.”
Weatherford and Winchester pulled off a double steal , Weatherford scored on Blake Downen’s sacrifice fly and Matthew Miller hit his second double of the game to score Winchester.
“He’s just a great hitter, he’s a ball player and he does everything you ask him to do,” McKnight said of Matthew Miller. “He puts in his work during practice and is really disciplined at the plate, and that helped get him a scholarship to play at Arkansas Tech.”
The Bruins chipped into the Bobcats’ lead in the sixth. Lawson Vassar led off the inning with a double and later scored on Chris Cole’s sacrifice fly, but that’s all Shepard would allow.
“I couldn’t be any happier,” said McKnight, who will miss the championship game on Monday due to the birth of his first child. “I don’t do nothing but watch the game and run practice. All of the credit goes to the kids.”