Arlington baseball player Kaden Pittman delivered the go-ahead double Saturday, propelling the Eagles by Omaha South, 6-1.
Nick Smith earned the complete-game pitching win at the Washington County Fairgrounds as coach Tyler Stender's team improved to 5-7.
“I kind of had a feeling (the Packers' pitcher) was going to walk me or give me something I wanted because he'd been missing low,” Pittman said of his game-altering, third-inning at-bat. “I just adjusted to what I thought he was going to give me and he did.”
The full-count, Omaha South pitch was headed to the outside corner of the plate as the Eagle swung his bat.
“I finally got a pitch I wanted,” Pittman said, noting recent struggles with outside fastballs. The infielder worked to correct his difficulties, however, and delivered.
“It was just, kind of, a big momentum shift for us — in our favor,” he said. “And they never really got it back after that one.”
Ahead 4-1 after Braden Monke added a third third-inning run on a bases-loaded walk, Arlington notched two more runs during the fifth inning. Trevor Denker scored the first on a passed ball before contact off of Blaine Vogt's bat led to the second.
Monke finished with two RBIs in the win, tying Pittman for the game lead.
Smith, meanwhile, allowed just two Packer hits during his seven innings of work from the mound.
“I just threw strikes and my defense behind me made plays,” the senior said. “That's all we really needed to win the game.”
Smith started 19 South batters with 0-1 counts, striking out three during his two-hitter. After two errors early, the AHS defense played clean baseball to end it.
Left fielder Darren Olsen squeezed the ball for the final out.
