PEA RIDGE — Considered among the darkest of horses heading into the 2010 Babe Ruth Baseball seasons, the Pea Ridge Community Bank diamond boys confounded the experts, fighting their way into the Babe Ruth Northwest Regional Tournament semi-finals before bowing out to the regular season champion Springdale team last week.

Pegged by some as a last place contender due to the loss of key players by graduation for the 17 years old and under team, the locals came up with a good 13-8 won-loss record, including a win over the league champion during the season. Led by former players Randon Webb and Tyler Ramsey with help from Pea Ridge school coaches John King and Matt Easterling, the Banksters gave local fans some optimism for next year’s Blackhawk outlook.

“We definitely overachieved this season,” Webb said, “as no one we would have a chance this year. The guys played hard and wound up winning most of their games.”

“We had a chance to upset Springdale in the semifinals and we actually had a four-run lead at one point, but a string of errors and numerous walks put us in a hole we couldn’t get out of,” Webb continued, “but we didn’t lose through lack of effort, that’s for sure.”

In the game Tuesday, both Pea Ridge and Springdale came out tough defensively in the first inning with neither team denting the plate. Things changed mightily in the second frame.

After two Banksters got on base, a single by Austin Easterling, followed by a throwing error led to a 1-0 Pea Ridge lead. After Springdale got a put out on a fly ball, Dusty Morgan singled in two more runs for a 3-0 lead. Kasey Cooper then drove in still another run as the Banksters ended their half of the inning sporting a 4-0 lead.

Pitching problems cropped for the locals in the bottom half as numerous batters got on base via the walk, and costly errors in the field led to Springdale taking command of the game 5-4. Springdale’s 10th batter of the inning then blasted a pitch down the middle over the left field wall as the league champions zoomed out to a8-4 lead.

Pea Ridge had the bases loaded with no one out in the fourth inning, but a base running error on a fly ball put a crimp in their comeback attempt. The Pea Ridge players did score toget closer to Springdale but the hosts scored eight more runs mostly via the walks and errors route to put the game away 16-6.

“We had two really bad innings in the field that just killed us,” Webb concluded, “but for the rest of the game, we played well and competed evenly with them.”

Ryan Roughton, Easterling and Morgan each had a pair of hits to spark the squad.

Sports, Pages 8 on 07/07/2010