HARRISON -- The bats stayed cold, and Lakeside got off to a slow state-tournament start.
After scoring seven runs in three zone-tournament games, the American Legion Class AA Rams were blanked 8-0 Friday by the Clarksville/River Valley Tropics at Harrison's First National Bank Sports Complex.
Clarksville's Brandon Wolski went five innings for the win, striking out six, and drove in three runs.
Lakeside (8-13), playing without starters Brandon Hall (family illness) and Bo Ritter (illness), will try to stay alive in the double-elimination event against Harrison or Jonesboro at 11 a.m. today. The winner plays again at 4 p.m. Gravette lost to Sheridan 8-4 Friday.
Hot Springs Village-Graves Sports, which played Maumelle late Friday, faces Gravette or Sheridan at 11 a.m. (loss) or 1:30 p.m. today. HSV plays a third game with a win in either of its first two.
Sheridan defeated Gravette 8-4 Friday. Harrison and Jonesboro met in a late game.
Clarksville took the lead with a third-inning run off Johnathon Barmore (3-3). The Tropics added two each in the fourth and sixth, then three in the seventh.
Barmore, coming off a five-hit zone shutout of HSV, went 5 1-3 innings.
Wolski, Layton Roboinson and Taylor Moudy each had two of Clarksville's 11 hits, Robinson driving in two runs. The Rams, shut out for the second time in 21 games, had five hits.
It was Lakeside's first state-tournament first-round loss since 2007, when the Rams came through the losers' bracket to win the first of back-to-back titles. The Rams, who went 1-2 last year, were not in the 2009 tournament.
Sports on 07/26/2014