Sophomore’s grand slam leads Heritage to emotional victory over rival Rogers in Arkansas Class 6A baseball quarterfinals

By Steve Andrews 

SPRINGDALE – Sophomore Jack Hamm stepped to the plate with his team’s season on the line Friday in the quarterfinals of the 6A state baseball tournament at Springdale High School. But the pressure – and the moment -- proved not too much for the young Rogers Heritage third baseman to handle.

With the bases loaded and the War Eagles trailing city-rival and defending state champion Rogers, 6-5, with one out in the top of the sixth inning, Hamm swung at the first pitch he saw. The contact was solid and the ball jumped off his bat. It did not land before it cleared the left-field fence for a grand slam, sending the Heritage team and fans into a frenzy.

“Basically, I just felt it when I was on deck, that it was going to happen and we were going to win this game,” said an elated Hamm after Heritage upset the top-seeded Mounties, 9-8, in front of a standing-room-only crowd. “I came to the plate, feeling calm, feeling good. I saw a fastball up, and I guess that’s all she wrote.

“This was just such a big win for us, and we finally got the respect we deserved.”

The victory moves the War Eagles (19-12), who entered the tournament as the fifth seed in the 6A-West, into the semifinals Saturday at noon against Conway (17-9), the second seed in the 6A-Central. The Wampus Cats advanced with a 3-0 win over Fort Smith Southside on Friday.

“This is crazy, I can’t believe it,” said senior Quentin Edwards, who knocked in the first run of the game on a third-inning double. “We started getting hot at the end of the year and we’re just rolling right now. We found a way to string together some at-bats. We were down and started punching back. That’s how we have fought all year.”

After Edwards’ RBI to score Bennett Crafton, Heritage extended the lead to 3-0 on RBI singles from Cade Nickel and Cole Richardson.

It didn’t take Rogers (24-6) long to regain the momentum, as the Mounties tied the score at 3-3 in the bottom half of the inning. Josh Lawing and Noah Goodshield each knocked in runs on line-drive singles, and Kade Seldomridge hit a sacrifice fly to plate Goodshield for the third run of the inning.

The Mounties then took their first lead in the fourth on a double to right field by Lawing, bringing home Eli Marcotte for a 4-3 lead.

Senior Brady Laird took the mound for Heritage in the fifth and proceeded to walk the lead-off batter, Goodshield, after an illegal pitch was called by the field umpire, thus bringing out War Eagles head coach Brian Walker to get an explanation. After a Seldomridge single, Laird was then called for a balk by the same umpire, allowing runners to advance. Again, Walker disagreed and sought an explanation.

After a Seldomridge singled, Laird was then called for a balk by the same umpire, allowing runners to advance. Again, Walker disagreed and sought an explanation.

JT Melson’s sacrifice fly brought home Goodshield to extend the lead to 5-3, before Laird was once again called for a balk by the field umpire, bringing Walker onto the field for the third and final time. When the field umpire failed to give him a satisfactory explanation, he went to the home plate umpire. After voicing his displeasure with the home plate umpire, Walker was ejected and forced to watch the remainder of the game on the team bus, outside of the stadium.

“First of all, he was pitching from the stretch and has pitched in 19 of our 30 games this season without being called for a balk – then, within just a few pitches, he gets called for an illegal pitch and two balks,” Walker said. “I couldn’t just sit there and let my kids wear it without getting in the middle of it. As the head coach and leader of my program, I thought my only response was to fight for my kids. The home plate umpire actually handled the situation great, through the whole thing. But he knew I was going to stand there asking the same question until he threw me out. I was going to make a statement to my kids that I had their backs. I did what I had to do, and he felt that he had to do what he had to do. He was just doing his job.”

The real irony of the story is the fact that the only other time Walker had ever been ejected from a baseball game was exactly 16 years ago, to the day, when he was a player at the University of Arkansas. In a well-documented moment that went viral on YouTube, May 13, 2006, the former Razorback catcher lost his cool against Ole Miss and was ousted. Friday was the first time he had ever been ejected as a coach, at any level.

“Only on May 13,” he said with a laugh.

With Walker watching from afar, his players began to rally. His ejection seemed to spark a fire in the War Eagles.

Tyler Jouett drew a one-out walk to get things started in the sixth inning, and advance to second on a single by Ethan Martin. Crafton was then hit by a pitch to load the bases.

A walk to Johannsen forced in one run, then a walk to Edwards brought in another to cut the lead to 6-5. That’s when Hamm stepped up and cleared the bases to make it 9-6.

“The story that these kids have written this season, and how much they have had to overcome, it just set it up for them to overcome another obstacle,” Walker said. “When I got dumped, I knew that they would respond for me. I think they did it for me, for themselves, for the school and for our entire community. They just refused to lose today.”

After scoring a run in the bottom of the sixth. Rogers continued to battle and make things interesting in the seventh.

With Edwards on the mound and rain beginning to fall, Marcotte reached base on a Heritage fielding error. Two batters later, with two out, Cooper Addison benefitted from another error that scored Marcotte, cutting the lead to one. But on the next pitch, shortstop Martin scooped up Lawing’s grounder and fired over to first-baseman Austin to end the game and start the celebration.

““Oh, my gosh, it was unbelievable, because we had put in so much preparation for this and there was so much intensity in the game, with the fans and everything -- It was just amazing,” said Edwards, who pitched the last two innings for the War Eagles and admitted he was a little nervous facing those last few batters.

“Who wouldn’t be in that moment? But I knew I just had to lock down and execute. That’s what it comes down to and that’s what we did today.”

Walker got a little emotional after the game, filled with pride for his players and his school.

“Heritage just hasn’t been on top for anything, so this was just so big for our school -- for us to be able to show people that we can compete, too, is a really big deal,” he said. “It puts us one win away from putting our best arm (senior Coleman McRae) out there, who I think can match up with anybody in the state. Conway is a solid team that is very well-coached, so we will have to play well. So, somebody else is going to have to step up for us tomorrow. Big-time moments create big-time players doing big-time things. This will be something they will remember forever.”

By rule, Walker must sit outside the stadium for today’s game, also. But he has all the confidence in his staff and players.

“My assistant coaches will do a great job managing the game, because they are prepared and know what they are doing,” he said. “But it will all come down to the kids, and I think we’ve got a great chance with this group.”

Bentonville 7, Little Rock Catholic 6

Jackson Hutchens’s sharp two-out single in the top of the seventh Friday knocked in Keegan Bulza for what proved to be the winning run, as Bentonville rallied to defeat Little Rock Catholic 7-6 in the semifinals of the 6A state baseball tournament at Har-Ber High School in Springdale.

The Tigers (21-10) will advance to play the host Har-Ber Wildcats (25-7) Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

Trailing 1-0 in the third, Bentonville erupted for five runs in the frame, all with two outs. Stephone Gryskiewicztied the game with a single to left field, before Tony Woodie’s double to right plated two more for a two-run lead. Drew Wright then crushed a home run to bring home Woodie and extend the lead to 5-1.

After each team plated a run in the four, Catholic put a four-spot on the board in the fifth to tie it at 6-6. The big hits came from Grant Hodge and Will Bunda who singled in two runs each.

Springdale Har-Ber 4, Cabot 0

Ethan Fender and Cooper Dossett blasted back-to-back homes runs in the third inning Friday, leading Springdale Har-Ber to a 4-0 win over Cabot in the semifinals of the 6A state baseball tournament at Har-Ber.

The Wildcats (25-7) advance to play Bentonville (21-10) Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

Fender hit a two-run shot to start things off, before Dossett followed with a solo bomb to left.

Dossett knocked in the final run in the fifth to put the game on ice.

Conway 3, Fort Smith Southside 0

Conway (17-9) advanced in the 6A state baseball tournament Friday with a 3-0 shutout of Fort Smith Southside (20-11)

The Wampus Cats advance to play Rogers Heritage Saturday at noon at Springdale High School.