STAR CITY — Star City coach Scott Johnson has three keys to baseball — pitching, defense and two-out hits.
The Bulldogs were able to do enough of all three to beat Stuttgart 4-2 on Friday in the Los Toritos Spring Break Tournament.
Down 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning with a runner on first, Star City (6-2, 3-1 8-4A Conference) was able to load up the bases for the No. 9 hitter, Eric Tucker. Even though Tucker fell behind 1-2 in the count, he was able to foul off a couple of pitches and took a ball before driving a pitch on the outside corner of the plate down the right field line for a bases-clearing double.
“We’ve been preaching big all season long about those two-out hits,” Johnson said. “Eric did a great job of battling the count and stayed with it.”
That put the Bulldogs up 4-2 and it would be the last hit Star City would get for the rest of the game. The Bulldogs were able to rely on Hunter Johnson’s arm for the rest of the game as he gave up just one earned run in the game.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Johnson went all seven innings and threw 92 pitches. He gave up two runs on four hits, two walks, two hit batters and had six strikeouts.
“He does a good job of hitting spots and keeps people off balance,” Johnson said. “He is a senior and he is a leader on this team. He got up in the pitch count, but he has been throwing the baseball since September, so I thought he was able to finish it.”
Star City did commit three errors in the game, which allowed one run, but it was still a low enough total to stick with Johnson’s philosophy.
“In high school baseball, you pitch, play defense and hope for a big hit with runners in scoring position,” he said.
Star City got on the board right away in the first inning as Zack House led off with a single and later scored on an error by the third baseman.
The score remained 1-0 in Star City’s favor until the top of the fourth inning when Regan Counce’s RBI single scored Taylor Daniels and Jay McGee followed with a sacrifice fly to score Jon Curtis for a 2-1 Stuttgart (2-6) lead.
But Star City responded with Tucker’s two-out RBI double off Stuttgart’s McGee, who came in that inning in relief. That was also the last batter McGee face, and Stuttgart coach Kevin Youngblood said he should have made the move sooner.
“I might have left my guy in there one pitch too long and it came back to bite us a little bit,” he said. “We got the pitch we wanted, and their guy did a good job driving it.”
Stuttgart’s Aaron Lockwood started the game and went 4 1/3 innings and gave up two runs on four hits, two walks and one strikeout.
Star City plays Junction City at 4 p.m. today in the semifinals of the tournament. Junction City beat DeWitt 10-0 in four innings and hit two home runs.
Stuttgart plays DeWitt at 10:30 a.m.