JOURNAL SPORTS
Benton’s Tanner Webb tossed a three-hit shutout and the Tigers knocked off St. Amant 1-0 in the third and decisive game of a three-game quarterfinal series Saturday of the LHSAA Non-Select Division I state baseball playoffs.
The Tigers scored the only run of the game when Hayden Millen, who had reached base on a walk, scored on a balk. Millen reached third base after Case Jorden sacrificed him to second and Bryson Pierce lifted a fly ball to left deep enough for him to tag up and advance.
Webb didn’t walk a batter and struck out five in keeping the Gators off the board.
Benton (31-10) won the first game of the best-of-3 series 4-2 Friday as Kade Bryant limited the Gators to four hits, walked five and two unearned runs over 6 1/3 innings. Webb came on to strike out the last two batters with the bases loaded to get the save.
The Tigers made the most of their four hits with Millen going 2-for-3. Millen scored the first of three third-inning runs on a Hudson Brignac single. Jorden scored on an error and Pierce came home on a sacrifice fly by Caleb Frey.
St. Amant (27-12), the No. 5 seed, forced a third and deciding game with three runs in the seventh inning for a 4-1 win in Game 2. Pierce was 3-for-3 and scored Benton’s only run that tied the game 1-1 in the sixth.
Benton, the No. 13 seed, will play No. 1 seed Barbe Thursday, 5:30 at McMurry Park in Sulphur in a single-elimination matchup.
Northwood (29-8) was able to win Game 2 of its best-of-3 series to force a deciding Game 3 before falling 10-4 to visiting Acadiana in Select Division I. The No. 4 seeded Falcons lost the first game 6-1 on Friday before defeating the Wrecking Rams 5-1.
Jaxon Bentzler went 6 2/3 innings, limiting the Rams to five hits and one run, as he walked five and struck out six to get the Game 2 win. He was also 3-for-4 at the plate with two of the Falcons’ four RBI in a five-run fourth inning. Hoss Little and Isaias Saucedo had run-scoring singles for Northwood.
Bentzler and Tucker McCabe were both 2-for-4 in the first game loss. Bentzler’s fifth-inning home run was the Falcons’ only tally. Senior third basemen Hutson Hearron had a fourth-inning double.
Kanyon Griffin hit two home runs for Acadiana (19-18-1) with his fifth-inning grand slam being the major blow for the Rams.
Acadiana scored five runs in the first two innings and added five more in the fifth in taking the clinching Game 3.
Christian Blackmon suffered the loss on the mound but had two of the Falcons’ five hits. Bentzler hit a home run for Northwood’s only extra-base hit.
Evangel, the No. 13 seed in Select Division II, dropped both its games at No. 5 St. Thomas More (21-15). The Eagles (16-19) lost 10-0 Friday in five innings and 7-3 Saturday in nine innings.