The Conway Bears defeated the Plato Eagles, 11-2, in a matchup between two of the top teams in the O-Zone Top 15 Power Rankings. Number 2 Conway was led by senior Chris Vavruska, who went 3-5 with three stolen bases and three RBIs.
“Our team, we’re real speedy,” said Vavruska. “Tonight, I had 3 hits; I just went up to the plate and looked to drive it up the middle. I didn’t try to do too much with it. With the wind blowing in, it’s tough. Last game I went 0 for 4 so I was trying to get a little bit back.”
Plato got on the board first when their first two hitters reached base on errors and came around to score in the first inning. After that, Conway senior pitcher Ethan Medlock would settle down and not allow the Eagles but four hits the rest of the game. Conway took the lead in the second inning when they scored three runs on two hits and four walks. The Bears also stole four bases in the inning, something they would do frequently as the game went on.
Medlock kept the Eagles off balance and was in control the rest of the game.
“In the first inning, the reason we let up any runs was because of errors,” said Medlock. “After that, I just threw strikes, pretty much, and let my defense take care of the ground balls. The wind was blowing so hard tonight that the errors we had were on fly balls.”
Conway looked like they were in trouble at the beginning of the game but Medlock was steady and the rest of the Bears took advantage of the Plato errors and walks. Plato did not have a strong defensive game, making eight errors and allowing 13 stolen bases.
“Conway just outplayed us,” said Plato coach Mark Vaughan. “We got a lead early but we didn’t make them pay when they made errors. We kicked the ball around a little bit and then they made us pay; that’s what good teams do. You can’t give a good team extra opportunities. We didn’t hit the fastball when they threw it at us. We left runners on base and we didn’t give ourselves a chance when the game was close.”
Medlock would not give up an earned run through his seven innings while striking out eight.
“It definitely started off a little shaky,” said Conway coach Clay Bilyeu. “We committed a couple of errors in that first inning, gave up a couple of unearned runs; it could have gotten away from us early. Ethan settled down and threw strikes, gave us the opportunity to be able to make defensive plays. The strike zone was a little bit tighter than what we are probably used to most nights, but it was consistent on both sides all the way through. Ethan made the adjustment, made them put it in play and didn’t walk anybody. He did that and we were able to take care of him. He threw strikes, that’s what we needed him to do.”
Conway, whose record is now 7-1, took advantage of their speed and stole 13 bases in the game. They also committed just four errors in the game, two of which might be blamed on gusty winds.
“When we made plays defensively, we were fine, it was just the couple errors that we kicked it around,” said Bilyeu. “Definitely wind was a factor, but we seemed to handle it a little bit better in the later innings.”
Plato 2 Conway 11
Plato 200 000 0– 2
Conway 032 123 X—11
