Northside coach Brian Fry said he’s going to ride Donte O’Neal as long as he could.

For nearly five innings, O’Neal was lights out. And when William Sanders lined a two-out single to left in the bottom of the eighth, he was a winner.

O’Neal and the scrappy Grizzlies rallied to beat the Mavericks, 6-5, for their second 6A-Central victory of the spring.

The Mavericks, now without their chances, fell to 2-4 as well.

“The last two weeks, that’s kind of been our bug-a-boo a little bit,” Southside coach Dale Harpenau said. “We squared some balls up. We hit some balls right at them, but Northside a lot of credit. It’s two teams battling for a playoff berth. They hit a ball hard late that went for a base hit.”

“That was huge for us right there, to come out with a victory,” Fry said. “This keeps us in the race. The way the conference is beating up on everybody, it’s still anybody’s game.”

Both Southside starter Braiden Partin and Northside’s Khaden Washington had one bad inning apiece, though Partin managed to pitch through the sixth inning.

The Grizzlies scored three times in the first with the help of three Mavericks’ errors; a boot by the shortstop, a throwing error by the shortstop, and a miss-throw by the left-fielder.


But the Grizzlies’ quick lead didn’t last long.


Washington walked Partin to open the second, plunked Lucas Wood, and threw Colton McBride’s bunt attempt into right field to give the Mavericks life.

Sophomore Eli Reichert’s two-out RBI single tied the game at 3.

Southside, which carries a four-game conference losing streak into Friday’s 6A-West doubleheader at Conway, took a 4-3 lead in the third when McBride, who had doubled with two outs, scored on a wild pitch.

But Northside pushed across two runs with the help of Partin’s wildness in the fourth. A two-out error scored pinch-runner Conley Bone with the tying run, and Sanders’ RBI single to left scored Duece Wise with the go-ahead run.

Southside tied the game in the seventh. Matthew Schilling singled with one out, raced to third on an error, and scored the tying run on Wood’s hard run-scoring single to center.

But to O’Neal’s credit, he retired the next hitters to keep the game tied, then pitched around losing pitcher Carson Doss’ leadoff single in the eighth.
