By DEVIN HASSON

The D.Q. Busters and Fort Smith Outlaws are no strangers as rivals in Arkansas. So even though this meeting took place in Texas at the Super Series Central Championships at The Ballfields at Craig Ranch in McKinney, there were few surprises. That included the outcome—for this year, at least—as the Busters improved to 5-0 over the Outlaws, ranked No. 18 in the latest travelballselect.com top 25 poll, with a 14-5 victory on Friday.

With the win, the D.Q. Busters, who are on travelballselect.com’s honorable mention list, advance to the title game on Saturday where they will once again face Fort Smith, which held off the Southlake Green Dragons, 7-6, to get a return match-up in the final.

The Busters,who had scored 14 runs in each of their previous two games, including a win over the No. 1 seed Omaha Pacesetters, continued the streak against Fort Smith early on Friday. John Beck got the win on the mound, pitching a complete game, while the coaching staff commended third baseman Tony Hawkins for his defense and the entire lineup for its offensive production.

Fort Smith, the No. 2 seed in bracket play, had not dropped a game prior to that one but had to rebound quickly against the streaking Green Dragons. Southlake went 1-2 in pool play to enter the bracket round as the 13th seed, but almost upset the Busters in the first round, falling, 3-2. They caught fire from there, pounding the fifth-seed L.A GameThunder (16-5), tenth-seed Dallas Patriots (11-2), ninth-seed McKinney Marshals (8-1) and top-seed Omaha Pacesetters (4-3). Earlier on Friday, the Green Dragons took down the Rip City Angels, 4-2, to advance to the final three teams.

It looked as if Southlake was on its was to the final after grabbing a 5-2 lead heading to the fourth inning, but Fort Smith would rally. Tanner Wiley led off the inning with a single, Mark Clark walked and Ty Storey singled to load the bases. A fielder’s choice by Matthew Ward drove home one run before Cody Scroggins walked to load the bases again. Southlake dodged one bullet by getting a force out at home, but Grant Higgins made it 5-4 with an infield single and Tanner Cooper provided the big blow with a three-run double to give the Outlaws a 7-5 lead.

As they had done all tournament long, the Green Dragons made things interesting, loading the bases in the fifth before Scroggins entered the game and struck the batter out on just three pitches. Southlake again threatened in the bottom of the sixth, pushing across a run to make it 7-6, but Scroggins was able to get out of the jam to send Fort Smith to the finals.

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