BEARCATS BUNT WAY TO THREE SEED

For the third straight year the Booneville Bearcat will be a three seed going into the Class 3A Region 1 tournament.

The Bearcats (15-6) got there this year by beating Paris 7-5 in the third place game, played at 9 a.m. at Hunt's Park in Fort Smith.

Trailing most of the day the Bearcats took the the lead with three runs in the bottom of the sixth, in which there were three bunts.

Paris led 5-4 when Matt O’Bar led off the inning with a soft popup that fell at the edge of the outfield for a single.

David Hicks put down the first bunt to move pinch running Cam Osborne to second and was also safe on a fielder’s choice when the throw went to second.

Brooks Herrera also singled with a bunt that scored Osborne to tie it at 5-5 when the throw got away from third with the go-ahead runs moving into scoring position.

Rhett Nietert squeezed in Hicks with another bunt to make it 6-5 and Herrera moved to third.

Dax Goff (2-for-4) did not play small ball. Instead he crushed a pitch that bounced over the fence in left-center, about 375 feet from home plate. That scored Herrera and represented Goff's 100th career RBI.

From there Goff (3-0), who had taken over in the second inning, finished it allowing only a leadoff single in the top of the seventh.

Goff (shown) had relieved Peyton Tatum after the Eagles had taken a 2-1 lead with nobody out and the bases loaded. The Eagles got one run on a walk, and another on a ground ball to make it 4-1.

With the first three hitters reaching, Paris also got another run in the third to make it 5-1 before the Bearcats started to chip away.

Herrera and Nietert were both hit by pitches to start the Bearcat third. A balk moved both into scoring position and, with one away, Tatum delivered a two run single to cut the deficit to 5-3.

The Bearcats got a leadoff double from Ry Ray in the fourth and got a two out walk, but were unable to draw closer.

Goff started the Bearcat fifth with a triple and would score on a Dunn Daniel single to make it 5-4. Jace Washburn would also reach on a soft single but a double play ended the inning with Paris still in front.

Goff retired the Eagles in order in the sixth.

Goff had scored the first run of the game scoring from second when a dropped third strike throw down to first was wide.

The win earns the Bearcats a 5:30 time slot in next week’s regional tournament in Harrison. The opponent will be the two seed from Conference 3A-1.