By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Forrest City Mustangs fought long and hard Thursday against West Memphis.
Battling into the 10th inning and locked in a 3-3 tie since the top of the fifth, the Mustang head coach Reggie Murphy went to his bullpen in relief of starter Colby McKennon.
That was the break West Memphis (4-3) needed loading the bases against Dustin Gore, Desmond Golatt and Marcus Hancock to score seven runs -- four earned -- to take home a 10-3 AAAAA-East Conference win.
The victory evened the Blue Devils' league mark at 2-2 but left the Mustangs 0-2 in the conference.
McKennon worked the first nine innings, giving up just three runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out seven and hitting one batter.
After allowing the third West Memphis run in the top of the fifth which tied the game at 3-3, McKennon allowed only five base runners through the ninth inning on just one walk and two hits and appeared to be getting stronger.
But Gore, who has been working himself back into the game after suffering an arm injury, came out to start the top of the 10th -- in a pitching move Murphy said was more for safety reasons than anything else.
"Colby was up over 100 pitches at that point and he's young and we didn't want to risk hurting him in any way," Murphy said.
Gore walked the first batter he faced and wild-pitched him to second, forcing Murphy to bring on Golatt, who gave up four runs on four walks -- two of those with the bases loaded -- and two hits in one-third of an inning.
Hancock finished out the inning, giving up two more runs on one hit and another bases-loaded walk.
Gore was charged with a single run.
West Memphis starter, Jake Hatchett worked nine complete innings and got the win, giving up three Forrest City runs on just four hits and five walks. Hatchett struck out 11 Mustang hitters.
"I was proud of how hard our kids fought today," Murphy said. "We made some defensive mistakes but we're young. To win these kind of games, you have to have pitching, defense and hitting or three out of three. Two out of three or one of the three won't get it done."
West Memphis took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first and stretched it to 2-0 in the third.
The Mustangs answered with three runs in the bottom of the fourth when Danny Flowers and Gore started the inning with back-to-back singles and Golatt walked to load the bases for Brad Taylor, whose RBI single scored Flowers. Adam Roberts reached on a fielder's choice and Isaac Davis used an error to reach base which scored Golatt and Taylor to put the Mustangs in front 3-2.
West Memphis tied it at 3-3 in the fifth and that's how it stayed until the 10th.
The Mustangs will host Osceola today at 4:30 p.m., and weather permitting will host Searcy Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
There's just a few hours left to register for the Forrest City Recreation Department's youth baseball and softball leagues.
When the bell tolls 6 tonight, it might be too late.
That is the final deadline for the late sign-up period.
Late sign-up fees are $20 for kids who live inside the Forrest City city limits and $30 for kids living outside the city limits.
The Recreation Department will remain open until 6 p.m. today.
For more information, contact Kenneth Taylor at 633-3667.
League play will begin in May.