HAMBURG, Ark. (4/29/25) – The Warren Lumberjacks lost its conference finale at Hamburg in heartbreaking fashion by a score of 8-7 in 10 innings. However, the loss didn’t affect Warren’s standing in the league as the Jacks finished second.
By Dennen Cuthbertson, SRN Baseball Contributor
This sports report is brought to you by:
Warren (15-6 overall, 7-3 in 4A-8) will be the second seed in the regional tournament scheduled for May 8-10 in De Queen. Hamburg finishes the regular season at 10-8 and 5-5 to claim the fourth seed from the conference in the regional tournament.
Warren fell behind early with a couple of early errors contributing to a 3-0 deficit after one inning. The Lumberjacks fought back though with RBI singles from Bryson Harris and Hayden Cathey highlighting a four-run frame to move in front 4-3 in the second inning. The Lions responded in the bottom half of the second with a pair of two-out RBI singles to get back on top 5-4. The home team added another run in the third inning to push the edge to 6-4.
Nathan Spears ripped a RBI single to left field in the top of the fourth to allow Warren to claw back within one run at 6-5. The Orange and Black took the lead in the fifth inning 7-6 after Kolby Pope plated Tucker McDiarmid and AJ Jordan with a two-run base knock. The score remained 7-6 until the bottom of the seventh. A leadoff double, sacrifice bunt, and base hit scored the tying run, but Parker O’Neal forced two groundouts to send the game to extras.
Neither team could get much action going in the extra frames until the bottom of the 10th. A leadoff walk started the frame before a strikeout gave Warren its first out. However, a bunt single and single to right field loaded the bases with one out. O’Neal fell behind the next batter 3-0, but came back to strike him out. However, the next batter hit a groundball to third base and the throw forced Harris to come off the bag in the umpire’s view to bring home the winning run and give Hamburg the 8-7 walk-off win.
Pope pitched the first six innings and wasn’t as sharp as normal with a few defensive miscues not helping the effort. The senior allowed six runs (three earned) on eight hits with one walk against eight strikeouts. O’Neal tossed the final 3 2/3 innings with two runs allowed (one earned) on six hits with three punchouts and one walk.
Offensively, Pope led the team with three hits and two RBIs. Harris and Cathey each recorded two hits and one RBI apiece. Jordan, McDiarmid, and Pope each scored a pair of runs.
Warren is scheduled to play some nonconference tuneups before heading to the regional tournament. The first of those is a road matchup against DeWitt on Thursday, May 1 with first pitch set for 5 p.m.
