The Van Buren Pointers counted on three-run innings on Thursday afternoon in their opener of the Class 7A state tournament.

They had four of them, including the bottom of the sixth inning to cap a 12-1 win over Northside early at Burns Park’s DeJanis Field.

Van Buren (21-6) will play Cabot, which had a first-round bye with the second seed out of the 7A-Central, today at 12:30 p.m. The winner will advance to Saturday’s semifinals.

The Pointers used three pitchers, who were all effective and needed just a combined 91 pitches through six innings on Thursday. Freshman Connor Johnson earned the start and the win with 3-1/3 innings, allowing just three hits, a run and throwing 60 pitches. Trevor Johnson threw, officially, 2-2/3 innings, and left after 29 pitches with a 2-2 count on his final batter. Evan Jones came in and needed just two pitches to polish off the sixth inning with a strikeout on what was officially Johnson’s hitter.

That makes Trevor Johnson and Jones both available for today’s game against Cabot, and Connor Johnson ready to also pitch on Saturday, if necessary.

“It was a good first game,” Van Buren head coach David Loyd said. “It worked out as far as our pitch count. They’re ready to go if we need them. It’s going to take them and maybe one or two more that didn’t throw today. We’ll line up, get after it and see how we do.”

Thursday, Van Buren capped the win with three runs with just three batters in the bottom of the sixth.

Jones walked and took second after Cooper Johns’ hard grounder to second wasn’t handled cleanly. Johns fouled off a pair of pitches before the hard grounder.

“It was great,” Johns, a senior, said. “I was swinging for the fences, but any hit is good. We’ve got a good team and it was a fun time out there scoring some runs.”


Johns was then able to stroll home when Trevor Johnson launched a game-ending three-run homer far over the left field fence.

Johnson, whose first two at-bats were caught on the warning track in dead center, also had a sacrifice fly in the first inning and a single in the fourth inning.

“We had a lot of guys that put the ball in play, and we ran the bases good,” Loyd said. “It was a good first day.”

Jones scored three runs after getting plunked in the opening inning, singling home a run in the second inning and walking to lead off the sixth.

“The first win of the tournament feels great,” Jones said. “We knew we had to stay focused against them. We knew it was going to be a battle either way. We knew they were going to be hyped and we were going to be hyped. Hopefully, we take the momentum of the first game into tomorrow.”

Jackson Hurst had a ground-rule double to score Landrey Wilkerson, who was hit by a pitch to start Van Buren’s first inning. Dakota Peters scored Hurst with a hard single up the middle to cap Van Buren 3-0 first inning.

“We’d like to have a re-do right there for sure,” Northside head coach Brian Fry said. “We dug ourselves a hole early. We tried to climb back out, against a good Van Buren team.”


Van Buren scored three more in the second inning on Chase Moore’s sacrifice fly and Jones’ single after which he took second on a walk by Hurst, then third on a wild pitch, and scored when Hurst got in a run-down on a pickoff attempt.

“When you get a mistake, you have to take advantage of it,” Loyd said. “We were able to do that a couple of times.”

Bryson Patrick scored on an error to start a three-run inning in the fourth. Moore’s single scored Seth Humphrey, who doubled, and Hurst singled down the left-field line to score Moore after Moore had stolen second.

Conley Bone and Grant Johnson each had two-hit games for Northside (10-25) with Johnson scoring Northside’s lone run in the fourth inning. After a one-out double, he moved to third on a ground ball and scored on a balk.

“We had opportunities,” Fry said. “If we could answer with one or two when the opportunity came. A few of our guys were nervous, I think, being their first time in the state tournament.”

Jake Rincon and Will Zuerker also had a hit for the Grizzlies, who were making their first state tournament appearance since 2011.

“It was experience for them,” Fry said. “Now, the expectation for the younger guys is this is where we want to be. Now, let’s start fighting for seeds instead of just getting in. Those older guys worked hard. It’s not the way we wanted to go out, but they set a precedent. We’ll get back in the fall and get back to work.”


