Northside’s baseball team knows it still controls its own destiny in order to reach the 7A State Tournament.

The Grizzlies took another step toward that chance to reach state on Tuesday. Northside broke a scoreless game with a four-run fourth, and the Grizzlies made that stand in holding off Little Rock Central, 4-2, in 7A-Central action at Hunts Park.

“We want to control our own destiny, we don’t want to have help from anybody, so it was a big game for us,” Northside coach Brian Fry said. “Fortunately, we do control it from here on out and if we can just get some timely hits and good pitching like we did (Tuesday), we’ll have a chance.

“We know we’re still going to have to win games to get in, that win did not get us in by any stretch so we’re still going to have to come out and play every day. We figure it’s going to take us two more wins to get in, that’s kind of where we’re looking at right now.”

With Tuesday’s win, Northside improved to 3-6 in conference play, having entered the game one game ahead of both Central and Southside for the sixth and final playoff spot in the 7A-Central. Northside is now a combined 3-0 against those two teams.

The Grizzlies’ big four-run fourth started with a lead-off walk to Jackson Scrivner; then the next batter, Hunter Linam, got hit with a pitch. Those runners then moved up a base on a wild pitch, meaning they were on second and third with one out and freshman Bobby Rauch coming to the plate.

On a 1-2 pitch, Rauch drove one just beyond the reach of the Tigers’ shortstop for a single, bringing in those two runners to break the scoreless tie.

“It was two strikes and it was a good at-bat,” Rauch said. “It was lots of pitches but (Central pitcher Ty Barrett) threw me a fastball and I just took it, but thank God those runners were on base; they did their part as well.”

Following Rauch’s hit, the next batter, Jake Rincon, drew a walk. Rauch then scored on Corbin Dishner’s RBI single, while Rincon scored on a two-out error, giving the Grizzlies a 4-0 lead.

That stood until the top of the sixth, when the Tigers cut that in half on Aaron Mann’s two-RBI home run to right center. Central’s next two hitters then reached base, as Fry proceeded to take out starting pitcher Max Frazier in favor of Jackson Scrivner.