This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own. Down four runs in the bottom of the fifth, Clairol rallied in the final frames for a walk-off victory over Carpentry Unlimited to capture the Springdale Little League championship on June The team, which had handily won the league championship the two prior seasons, started this spring with four straight losses then reeled off 16 wins before defeating first-half winner Carpentry.
Carpentry controlled the game early with yet another strong pitching performance by lefty Matt Tiplady, who exhibited poise and control throughout. In his four-plus innings, he allowed only a few scattered hits without any walks and struck out five, including one with runners in scoring position to end the first. However, Clairol began its comeback as Tiplady neared his pitch-count limit in the fifth then stepped it up once he had been removed.
Joey Price, who started on the mound for Clairol, opened the rally with the second of his three hits on the night. Second baseman Calvin McKeever, down to his last strike, drove a high fastball deep into right center for a two-run double to make it Clairol right fielder Dave Marciczkiewicz dropped a perfect bunt to start the bottom of the sixth with a single. Following an out, Price ripped a shot to right to bring in the tying run from first.
Carpentry intentional walked Jelani Jackson before center fielder Chris Price beat out an infield single to load the bases. After the next batter struck out, McKeever stepped up and cracked a hard grounder through the right side of the infield to plate the winning run for Clairol. Carpentry collected its first run when Joe Johnson, who had reached base on a deep double, scored on a double play in the third.
In the fourth, infielder Pete Johnson drove in two on a single. Jack Hoch drove in the final Carpentry run in the fifth on a sharp single to left, scoring Tiplady who had leadoff with a single. Insurance outlasted RMS Construction in an extra-inning slugfest. Anthony Karwaski made two great catches in right to keep the score close.
