Tigers fall to Longhorns in 1A state semi

For years the three top teams in Arkansas 1A state baseball have been the Armorel Tigers, the Viola Longhorns and the Taylor Tigers. The 2019 season proved no different as the Tigers of Armorel squared off late Sunday afternoon with the Longhorns for a chance to travel to Fayetteville this upcoming weekend to face the Tigers of Taylor in the 1A state championship game.

The Armorel Tigers came up one game short of competing at Baum, falling to Viola, 10-0, in five innings.

Armorel knew coming into the game its two best pitchers — junior Quinn Crosskno and freshman Jayce Fondren — were out because of the Arkansas Activities Association’s pitch count rules. They would have been available Monday, but the game was rescheduled for Sunday afternoon instead. Bo Hale started on the bump for Armorel, but didn’t last long as the Longhorns were hitting the ball and the Tigers were unable to make plays. Hale threw 18 pitches allowing six runs, three earned, on three hits and a walk.

Junior CJ Simmons came in relief and got the Tigers out of the inning but the damage was already done as the Longhorns lead 6-0 after the first.

Simmons held the Longhorns scoreless in the second inning but allowed three runs in the bottom of the third.

Simmons pitched two and a third innings, giving up three earned runs on three hits with four walks and four strikeouts.

Senior Brayden Hohn, who saw limited action on the mound during the regular season, pitched two innings and gave up one run on one hit with two strikeouts and two walks.

Seasoned Tigers head coach Charlie Brown said, “We’ve got to get more consistent with the strike zone with all of our different pitches and see if we can improve some velocity this summer and improve our mentality and focus. If we do that we will be better for it next year.”

For Viola, senior Dalton Roork pitched a complete game and fanned nine Tiger batters, allowing one hit and issuing three walks.

Tiger junior catcher Tanner Davis had the Tigers lone hit in the game.

The Longhorns were led offensively by Gage Harris (1-3 with two runs scored and an RBI), Carson Guffey (1-3 with a run scored and an RBI), Will Wilson (1-3 with two runs scored and an RBI), Caden Meredith (3-3 with three runs scored), Kevin Foster (run scored and an RBI) and Roork (1-2 with three RBIs and a run scored).

The Longhorns finished the Tigers in five innings and won 10-0. VHS will face Taylor for the 1A state championship.

Longhorns head coach Clayton Gardner addressed the amount of respect the Longhorns have for Brown and the Tigers.

“We are extremely thankful to be here; our guys have worked hard all year long, and we have nothing but the utmost respect for Coach Charlie Brown and the Armorel Tigers,” Gardner said. “They have been our nemesis for many years and we have had a lot of great fights and battles with them, and we’ve got nothing but super mad respect for them. So, for us to come out and play the way he did and for Dalton to throw the way he threw and then put some runs back up on the board was huge for us for us to finally make it back to Baum.”

Gardner said he’s thankful for the opportunity to play the Taylor Tigers and commended the district on the amount of work they put into the fields over the weekend.

“First off I want to say they did a wonderful job with the state tournament with all of the rain that we got. Taylor worked really hard to get that in for everybody and you know they are a quality squad. They are always a quality squad,” Gardner said. “They’ve got a lot more numbers than we do, they’ve got a ton of kids. We are going to take our 12 blue-collar kids that work their butt off and just go play. We are thankful for the opportunity that we have to go play and we will see what happens.”

Brown said his club was outplayed Sunday and that both teams meeting in the finals are good teams.

“We got outplayed in just about every facet. The kids hung around there and the kids that were on the field at the end I am very proud of,” Brown explained. “Hey, Viola’s got a good team and Taylor’s got a good team; it should be a heck of a final. We’ve just got to get these young guys in there and get them to buy into a process and start working and improve for next year,” Brown

The Tigers will graduate five seniors— Garrett Ruddick, Hale, Hohn, Jayden Henderson and Wesley Walls. The seniors were a part of the 2016 state championship, four elite eight appearances and two final fours.

“ I’m proud of the senior class. We got back to the final four. Maybe we can improve and go on to the next level,” Brown added.