Van Buren shuts out Fayetteville

Trevor Johnson was dialed in on the mound Monday evening at the Field of Dreams. Johnson pitched a complete-game shutout to help lead Van Buren to a 2-0 victory against Fayetteville in a key 7A-West Conference baseball matchup. "He has been our workhorse," Van Buren coach David Loyd said. "He has stepped it up a notch this year. He is just a junior, so we know he will get better. We knew he would battle until the end today." Johnson finished his 108-pitch performance by allowing just three hits while striking out 10. "It usually doesn't happen because I don't strike a lot of guys out," Johnson said. "But today I had it working. My stuff was pretty good. I hit my spots." Fayetteville (16-11-1, 7-6 7A-West) had its scoring opportunities in the first, second and sixth innings, but Johnson was able to keep the Bulldogs off the scoreboard. Johnson at one point retired 13 consecutive batters. "He really mixed his pitches well," Fayetteville coach Scott Gallagher said. "He did a really good job. But we didn't do a very good job battling. We give him a lot of credit because he pitched well." In the first inning, a one-out double was left stranded with back-to-back strikeouts looking for Fayetteville. The Bulldogs had a leadoff walk to open the second inning. But the potential rally wasn't helped when Van Buren was able to record an out with a fielder's choice from an outfielder on the next at-bat. Back-to-back two-out singles in the sixth inning was followed by a strikeout looking that ended that inning. "We had some opportunities," Gallagher said. "I think we let one pitch make an impact on the next in the at-bats. We didn't hit well when we had runners in scoring position. When Van Buren got them on, they got them in today." Van Buren leadoff man Landry Wilkerson provided the offense, going 3-for-4 with three doubles, and scored both runs. Van Buren (18-5, 8-3) opened up the first inning with an extra-base hit from Wilkerson. Evan Jones was able to drive in the run with a ground ball. Jones again picked up another RBI in the fifth inning after another leadoff double from Wilkerson. Jones drove in the run this time with a sacrifice fly to take a 2-0 lead. The series continues today when Van Buren travels to Fayetteville with both teams battling for a high seed in next week's state tournament. Fayetteville 000 000 0 -- 0 3 0 Van Buren 100 010 X -- 2 4 0 Johnson and Rouser; Davenport, Trivitt (6) and Tate. W - Johnson, 8-1. L - Davenport, 3-3. HRs-None

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VAN BUREN SHUTS OUT FAYETTEVILLE

HAROLD MCILVAIN

Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette | 5/1/2018

PHOTO CREDIT: Fayetteville High School Athletics