The Greenwood Bulldogs from Greenwood, Arkansas handed the Shadow Ridge Stallions  a 17-12 loss in baseball on Tuesday afternoon in Surprise.

The Bulldogs got out to a very hot start, scoring 11 runs in the top of the first inning to take an 11-0 lead before the Stallions even had a chance to bat.  The Stallions recorded eight errors in the first.

Shadow Ridge head coach Rodney Friar attributed his team’s slow start to a lack of mental preparation due to the school’s ongoing spring break.

Senior Connor Noland led the first-inning rally as the Bulldogs hit well against Stallions junior pitcher Josh Thurman, driving in 10 runs before Thurman was relieved by senior Tyler Hurt, who got the last out of the inning.

Connor Noland went 2-for-2 with three runs batted in, stole a base and scored two runs in the inning.

“One of my assistant coaches kind of lit them up a little bit and said he wasn’t going to watch this for six innings,” Friar said. “That we need to fight back and do whatever we could to make this game interesting.  It seemed to spark something in them.”

The Stallions tried to get back into the game when it was their turn to bat.  A couple of runners got on base for the Stallions in the first inning and senior Cade Kennedy hit an RBI double to drive in senior Daniel Holbert.  Freshman Trey Tarver scored a run off of a ground out and Cade Kennedy crossed home plate on a wild pitch before the inning was over to make the score 11-3 at the conclusion of the first.

Hurt came back out to start the second inning for the Stallions and retired three batters in a row.  This gave the Stallions a little bit more confidence.

“He (Hurt) really just came in and stopped the bleeding and allowed us to fight back offensively with our bats,” Friar said. “He just threw the ball, got some outs and allowed the guys to get back into the game.”

The Stallions did not score any runs in the second inning and the Bulldogs managed to push their lead back to 11 runs after the top of the third.  The Bulldogs scored three runs in the third inning, two of them coming off of a two-run home run to deep left field by Noland.

“We’re big energy-type kids, so they feed off of each other,” Greenwood head coach Trey Holloway said. “Circumstances come where they can’t talk and different things throughout the game and that’s where you see our energy go to sleep.”

The Stallions batters came out in the fourth inning ready to hit the ball, scoring seven runs to cut the lead down to four runs and make it a 14-10 game.  Five different Stallion players got a hit and three different Stallion players were walked during the inning.

The score of the game was 14-6 and the bases were loaded when Kennedy came to the plate.  He blasted a three-run double to deep right field to make the game 14-9, and senior Chase St. Amand hit an RBI triple to drive in Kennedy and finish the scoring for the inning.

“There was a lot of young youth in that lineup.  I think five freshmen were in the starting lineup in that inning,” Friar said. “They just showed a lot of desire to play and play hard and win.”

Kennedy rallied his team, scoring two runs and driving in another four during the game.  He believes the team regaining their composure was the reason the team was able to get back into the game.

“Just have good AB’s (at-bats), good plate appearances, just do what you can do,” I just kind of go out there and do my own thing and I keep the same approach for every at-bat, no matter what the score is, no matter what I do on defense.  I just try to play hard and have fun.”

Senior Pitcher Alex Mason relieved Hurt to start the fifth inning and recorded two outs before walking a batter and allowing a hit.  With two batters on base, Bulldogs senior Jake Smith grounded out to first base to end the top of the fifth.

The Stallions scored another two runs in the bottom of the fifth to make it a 14-12 game and things really started to get interesting.

Alex Mason allowed two hits in the top of the sixth inning but allowed nobody to score.

The Bulldogs brought in Nick Phelps as a reliever and he got out of the sixth inning scoreless while allowing one hit and one walk.

Mason started the seventh and final inning on the mound for the Stallions.  He walked two consecutive batters and allowed a two-run triple to drive in the two runners on base.  One more run was scored on a wild pitch.

Kennedy has high hopes for his team and teammates and believes there are some things the Stallions (7-7) can do to improve after this loss.

“Just throwing strikes and lessening the errors,” Kennedy said. “We’re trying to go to state this year.”

The Stallions are traveling to Pueblo, Colorado tonight to face Pueblo East High School at 3:30 p.m. tomorrow.

The 9-3 Bulldogs now move on to the next part of their road trip, as they also travel to Pueblo, Colorado to play the Pueblo Central Wildcats tomorrow morning.

Being over 1,000 miles from home, the Bulldogs team has had a good time getting to see parts of the country and play baseball in different places.

“We can compare our baseball to other states’ baseball.  Now I don’t know how good Shadow Ridge is or anything like that, but you saw with the innings we played that we can play with anyone.” Holloway said. “We got to see the Grand Canyon, we’re getting to go to four major-league games; things that these kids would never get to see.”