Little Rock Catholic hung on to win another one-run game over Northside on Friday.

Catholic followed almost the same script as last time, winning, 5-4, over the Grizzlies at Hunt’s Park as the 7A-Central heads down the stretch.

Catholic (11-2, 6-4) beat Northside, 2-1, three weeks ago behind Razorback-bound Evan Hiatt’s one-hit, 11 strikeout performance when Catholic broke a 1-1 tie with a late run.

Friday, Catholic broke a 1-1 tie with four runs in the top of the sixth and then hung on.

“We survived,” Catholic head coach Dustin Strube said. “We talk all the time about close games like that and whoever overcomes adversity. We had some self-inflicted adversity. They put some pressure on us with their bats. We didn’t make it easy on ourselves with walks and errors, but we survived.”

The Rockets stayed near the top of the logjam in the 7A-Central with the win.

“One pitch, one play here or there and you can go from second seed to sixth seed the way it’s shaping up,” Strube said. “Two through six is still up for grabs. We kept ourselves in it.”

The loss dropped Northside (10-19, 4-6) in the standings.

Little Rock Catholic 5, Northside 4

Catholic 100 004 0 — 5 6 1

Northside 100 003 0 — 4 9 2

Gephardt, Coppens (6), Vondran (6) and Plafcan; Scrivner, Mills (6) and Linam, W – Gephardt, L – Scrivner, HRs – none.

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“We’ve had two or three one-run conference games,” Northside head coach Brian Fry said. “We’re looking for one hit there at the end. We’ve got to win one of those.”


Down 5-4 in the bottom of the seventh, Kadin Hyatt led off with an infield single. Catholic reliever Preston Vondran, who also got the Catholic out of a jam in the sixth inning, got a pop foul out and a called third strike before plunking Grant Johnson. Vondran ended the threat with a fly ball.

“Vondran came in in the sixth inning in a big jam,” Strube said. “He’s pitched a little bit of varsity for us, but hasn’t been in a conference game in a situation like that. He came up big.”

After each team scored a run in the first inning, Catholic starter Matthew Gephardt threw four scoreless innings and retired nine straight Grizzlies at one point. Northside starter Jackson Scrivner also pitched four scoreless innings and retired eight straight Rockets at one point.

Hiatt started Catholic’s sixth inning off with a hard double past third to start a four-run inning for the Rockets. Catholic received four walks in the inning, but Matt Rogers’ pinch-hit line-drive single that drove in two runs did the most damage.

Northside answered with a rally of its own in the bottom of the sixth.

“We came back and ended up with the bases loaded, one out and the go-ahead run in scoring position,” Fry said. “We didn’t lay down.”

With one out, Scrivner singled to right, most to second on Hunter Linam’s single before Johnson’s single loaded the bases. Northside’s fourth straight single, by Bobby Rauch, plated Scrivner. Courtesy runner Brady Martinez scooted home on a wild pitch to cut Catholic’s lead to 5-3.


Khade Washington walked to load the bases, and Conley Bone’s walk forced Johnson home.

Vondran came in and got a ground ball for a force at home followed by an inning-ending fly ball.

“The last half of the conference season, we just need to keep giving ourselves chances and it will come around,” Fry said. “Every pitch matters with us jumbled up like we are.”

Northside also had a chance to score in the fifth inning, which would have cracked a 1-1 tie before all of the sixth-inning scoring. Bone doubled into the corner in left field with one out, and after the inning’s second out, was cut down at the plate on a perfect throw on Jake Rincon’s single to right.

Northside had one-out singles by Rauch and Washington in the second inning, too, but a strikeout and a ground out stranded them.

“The wind created havoc on both sides,” Fry said. “It knocked balls down and both of us tried to change the approach. At times we tried to do too much. If we stay within ourselves, we’ll start winning those close games.”


