By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
HAZEN--The Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots finished second Thursday at the 6AA District tournament, losing to Barton 15-13 in 11 innings.
The Lady Patriots will open play at the Region 3 Tournament Saturday at Pocahontas when they take on Brookland at 10 a.m.
A win over Brookland will bring the Lady Patriots back for a 1 p.m. semifinal game. The championship game will be played Monday at 4 p.m. The top two teams from the regional will advance to state tournament play.
Palestine-Wheatley defeated Carlisle 8-4 in semifinal action Thursday to get to the title game against Barton, who defeated Hazen in their semifinal.
In the final, P-W scored first to take a 4-1 lead after one inning but Barton scored seven runs in the top of the second inning to move in front 8-4.
P-W answered with three runs in the bottom of the third to get within one run at 8-7 and then regained the lead with four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to go up 11-9. P-W added two runs in the sixth to increase their advantage to 13-9.
Barton tied the game at 13-13 with four runs in the top of the seventh and the Lady Patriots did not score again, paving the way for Barton's two runs in the top of the 11th inning to win the game.
"We had every opportunity to win the game," said P-W Coach Beverly Bass. We were playing great on defense but we weren't hitting the gaps with the bats. We were hitting too many fly balls for outs."
Ashley McGraw scored three runs for P-W on two triples and one single while Amanda Riffle, Leslie Hoots and Libby Martin each scored two runs. Jenny Loewer, Andrea Cooper and Nikki Bass scored single runs for the Lady Patriots.
In the semifinal game against Carlisle, Hoots connected for a home run.
The Lady Patriots stand at 11-2 for the year.
A year ago, the Lady Patriots lost to McCrory in the regional finals but advanced to the AA state tournament.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
WEST MEMPHIS--The streak of consecutive AAAAA-East Conference track titles ended Thursday for Forrest City.
The Mustangs were the three-time conference defending champions headed into yesterday's competition.
Cabot used the strength of their distance runners to roll up 143 points to take the senior boys' title. West Memphis finished second with 119 points and the Mustangs ran third with 87 points at West Memphis.
Sylvan Hills finished fourth and Jacksonville held on for fifth.
In the senior girls' competition, the West Memphis Lady Blue Devils got a 40-point performance from Marquita Aldridge to edge Cabot's Lady Panthers 151-to-142 for the girls' title. Jonesboro finished third with 93 points, Blytheville held on for fourth.
Forrest City got 30 of their 49 total points from senior Verika Robinson to place fifth.
"We lowered all of our times and ran the fastest times of the season," Lady Mustang Coach Lewis Etheridge said.
Robinson, along with Nynechia Fleming qualified for state tournament action while the Lady Mustang 800, 1,600 and 3,200-meter relay teams qualified.
Robinson was a triple winner, taking first in the 800 1,600 and 3,200 meter races.
Fleming ran fourth in the 400-meter.
The 800-meter relay team (Deosha Agnew, Fleming, Stephanie Hancock and Chasna House) ran third while the 1,600-meter relay team (House, Robinson, Hancock and Fleming) finished fourth as did the 3,200-meter relay team (Tricia Newborn, Rica Russell, LaToya Brooks and Robinson).
The 400-meter relay team ran sixth using the combination of Oscie Lockett, Fleming, House and Hancock.
Robinson, Fleming and Hancock, all seniors, are making their third straight trip to state competition.
Salena Haymes ran eighth in the 300-meter low hurdles.
In the field events, the Mustangs took fifth and sixth places in the high jump with efforts from Steve Marrs and Terrance Wilson, both with leaps of 5 feet 7 inches.
Evan Haggins was fifth in the long jump while Travis Hurst was sixth. Montrell Ashcraft picked up a third place finish in the triple jump with a effort of 39 feet while Kenwarren McShan finished eighth.
Ray Dixon picked up a second place finish in the shot put with a toss of 46 feet one inch. Howard Collins finished fifth and Darran Davis was eighth.
Dixon was fourth in the discus with an effort of 126 feet, five inches.
Daniel Echols ran fourth in the 100-meter dash followed by Haggins who was sixth.
Haggins ran third in the 200-meter dash while Willie Wade finished fifth and Jason Jones ran sixth.
Joseph Wilson ran second in the 400-meter run and Kerry Evans finished sixth.
Wade finished fourth in the 800-meter run.
Travis Hurst was third in the 300-meter hurdles and Ashcraft finished eighth.
Forrest City ran second in the 400, 800 and 1,600-meter relays, third in the 3,200-meter relay.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Forrest City Lady Mustangs softball team ended their regular season Thursday with an 11-7 win over Little Rock McClellan at the Sports Complex.
The Lady Mustangs improve to 10-5 as they prepare to open Region 4 Tournament play Saturday at Pine Bluff Regions Park.
Forrest City will play Little Rock Central at 11:30 a.m. A win brings the team back at 1 p.m. for a semifinal game against the West Helena-LR McClellan first-round game.
Thursday, McClellan led 2-0 after scoring twice in the top of the first inning. Forrest City got four runs in the bottom of the third to lead 4-2. They pushed that advantage to 10-3 with six runs in the bottom of the fourth inning.
They added one more run in the sixth and McClellan closed out the scoring with four runs in the top of the seventh.
Abby Townsend led the Lady Mustangs by scoring three runs while Katie Murry and Kennisha Aldridge added two runs each. Tyeshia McDaniel, Leslie Jayroe, Kimberly Hoots and Krystal Weaver scored single runs.
The Lady Mustangs won the junior varsity game 9-8 led by Jennifer Ballard and Natalie Nelson who scored two runs each. Forrest City scored three times in the first inning and added six runs in the second.
McClellan scored seven times in the fourth inning.
The Area 8 Special Olympics will be held Saturday, April 28, at Wynne's Yellowjacket Stadium, beginning with opening ceremonies at 8:45 a.m.
The games start at 9 a.m.
More than 200 athletes will compete from Forrest City, West Helena, Holly Grove, Hughes, Wynne and the Monroe County Human Development Center.
For more information, call 633-5270.