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FAYETTEVILLE -- The Red team rode its pitching staff on the way to clinching the Fall World Series title Saturday afternoon.
Caden Monke was dominant for 3 ⅔ innings and three relievers finished off a 7-0 seven-inning shutout over the Black team at Baum-Walker Stadium.
It gave the Red team a 4-2 win in Arkansas’ annual seven-game series to cap its fall practices.
“I thought it was very competitive really until today,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “A lot of times when you get to the end of fall…guys are tired and worn out, sometimes as coaches you’re just hoping you can get through it and no one gets hurt. But I think unanimously we all felt as coaches that we looked forward to this series and it showed us a lot.”
Had it not been for a leadoff error in the fourth, Monke would have given the Red four full innings.
Instead, right-hander Evan Gray relieved him with runners on the corners and struck out Cason Tollett to end the threat.
That proved to be the last time the Black team had a chance to score. It managed just one base runner over the final three innings, with Gray, Ryan Costeiu and Zebulon Vermillion each throwing one apiece.
With pitching like that, the Red didn’t need much offense, but it got plenty.
An error by freshman Cayden Wallace in right field on Zack Gregory’s single allowed the first run to score and then Zac White notched his second hit of the series - an RBI single that made it 2-0 in the second.
In the third inning, Braydon Webb doubled that lead with one swing of the bat, launching a two-run home run on the first pitch he saw from Connor Noland the second time around.
“Conner’s a good mix guy,” Webb said. “He was getting a lot of people out on his curveball, so I was just telling myself to stay back and I got a ball up and I got a good barrel on it.”
The Red got even more cushion a few batters later when Casey Opitz ripped a double down the third base line to drive in two runs and make it 6-0.
That was more than enough, but Robert Moore tacked on another run in the sixth with a sacrifice fly.
Game 6 MVP
Things didn’t start out well for Monke, as the left-hander gave up back-to-back singles to Jacob Nesbit and Christian Franklin to start the first inning.
However, he got Wallace to swing at a first-pitch breaking ball, which he hit into a 5-3 double play.
