Sam Simmons’ walk-off single gave the Benton Tigers a 2-1 District 1-4A victory over the North DeSoto Griffins on Wednesday at Benton.
In District 1-5A games, the Parkway Panthers downed Byrd 15-6 at Byrd’s field at LSUS, and the Haughton Buccaneers knocked off Southwood 15-4 at Southwood. Also, Captain Shreve defeated Evangel Christian 6-3 at Shreve.
Parkway (18-5, 6-1) and Captain Shreve (21-2, 4-1) are tied for first in the loss column. Haughton (13-12, 5-2) is in second followed by Evangel (9-15, 4-3), Byrd (10-14, 1-4), Airline (9-16, 1-6) and Southwood (3-20, 0-5)
At Benton, the Tigers and Griffins were tied at one going into the bottom of the seventh.
Benton’s Brennan Blaylock and Cody Norris led off with back-to-back singles. Tanner Timms was walked intentionally to load the bases.
After Cole Horton flied out, Simmons cracked a line drive single into left field to score Blaylock.
North DeSoto took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third. The Tigers tied it in the bottom of the sixth.
Simmons doubled with one out. Cameron Ross brought him home with a two-out single.
Simmons finished 3-for-4 with two doubles. Ross pitched a complete game, allowing six hits and striking out six.
North DeSoto’s Hunter Gaston also had a solid outing, giving up six hits in 6 1/3 innings.
Benton, which is looking for its sixth straight district title, improved to 14-9 overall and 4-0 in 1-4A. North DeSoto dropped to 13-11 and 3-1. The teams are scheduled to complete the two-game series at 6 p.m. Thursday at North DeSoto.
At LSUS, the Panthers broke a 2-2 tie with seven runs in the top of the sixth. They added six more in the seventh.
Caleb Reese led off Parkway’s sixth with a triple, and Eric Williams followed with a double. Peyton Lewis also had a double in the inning. The Panthers took advantage of four walks and a hit-by-pitch. Amani Larry brought in a run with a sacrifice fly.
Lewis, who went 2-for-4, had another double in the seventh. Cameron Phillips singled and Eric Brown tripled.
Brown went 2-for-2 with four RBI. He also drew three walks. Parker Stevens got the win. He allowed four hits and struck out six in five innings. Lewis struck out three in one inning of relief.
The teams are scheduled to complete the series at 6 p.m. Thursday at Parkway.
At Southwood, Haughton scored six runs in the first inning.
Peyton Stovall led off the game with a triple. Mason Simmons and Jathon Patton followed with singles. Nick Heckman had a double and Hayden Hensley a triple.
The Bucs added three more in the third and four in the fourth.
Simmons went 3-for-4 in the game. Heckman went 3-for-3. Harlan had two hits and three RBI. Patton went 2-for-4 with two RBI.
Heckman pitched three innings for the win. He allowed two hits and no earned runs and struck out four.
The teams are scheduled to complete the series at 6 p.m. Thursday at Haughton.
In a non-district game, Bossier fell to Lakeview 12-2 at Lakeview.
Jon Mikal Robertson led the Bearkats, going 3-for-3.
NOTE: The above report is based on information on teams’ official GameChanger accounts or received from coaches.
— Russell Hedges, rhedges@bossierpress.com
