After a scoreless first inning Thursday, Sheridan scored in bunches to pull away from Pine Bluff.
The Yellowjacket baseball team notched their third-straight win, defeating the Zebras 16-1 in four innings at Pine Bluff’s Taylor Field.
Sheridan (12-10, 7-4 in 5A South) outhit Pine Bluff 9-3 and committed no errors while taking advantage of five Zebra errors.
Pine Bluff (0-14, 0-11) starting pitcher Kaden French recovered from allowing a one-out single in the top of the first inning with back-to-back strikeouts. Centerfielder Landon Holcomb singled for Pine Bluff with two outs in the bottom of the first, but Sheridan starter Brennan Jarreau stranded him there with a ground ball to end the inning.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Sheridan broke through in the second inning, scoring 7 runs off four hits and four errors. The Yellowjackets loaded the bases with no outs for third baseman Grant Thomas, who delivered a 2-RBI single to score the game’s first runs. First baseman Maddox Johnston and designated hitter Zac Carson followed with RBI hits before the first out was recorded.
Carson later scored on a pair of errors. Later in the inning, left fielder Logan Ward, who had led off the inning, delivered an RBI triple to make it 7-0. French escaped the inning by catching a line drive hit right back to the pitcher’s mound.
Sheridan coach Mike Moore said it took an inning to get used to the pitch speeds the Yellowjackets were seeing.
“After the first three or four hitters, everybody kind of realized, ‘Hey, we gotta try to see it deep and stay behind it and hit it to the opposite field, and good things will happen,’” Moore said. “We laid two or three pretty good bunts, I think, that kind of got us going enough. We had some big hits, too.”
Sheridan added 5 runs in the third and 4 in the fourth to reach run-rule territory. A 2-RBI single by substitute Jared Berry made it 16-0.
Pine Bluff finally scored in the bottom of the fourth. Catcher Malachi McDonald led off with a double, moved to third on a groundout, then scored on a wild pitch. French walked with two outs, but Sheridan reliever Grant Shearer ended the inning and the game with a strikeout.
Sheridan used nine substitute hitters in the top of the fourth with a big lead. Moore said it is good to give those players a chance to play when possible.
“We have some really good guys that are really good players, as far as team players, that are not getting a lot of playing time, but they’re all in,” Moore said. “They’re real supportive of the team. They’re team players.”
The substitutes contributed two hits, three walks and a sacrifice fly.
This victory was Moore’s 702nd as a coach. He reached the 700 wins milestone Monday with a 13-1 home victory against Monticello. He said it required a lot of help from players, parents and administrators over the years to achieve it.
“When I think about it, it’s kind of emotional, because I know how much work went into doing that and how hard it is to accomplish that,” Moore said. “It’s really gratifying to know, and to have done it all at Sheridan and not moving from school to school I think’s really special, as well.”
Kaden French with the Pine Bluff High School baseball team delivers a pitch against Sheridan High School at Taylor Field in Pine Bluff on Thursday, April 18, 2024. (Special to the Commercial/William Harvey)