By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
PINE BLUFF--The Little Rock McClellan Lady Lions took the rubber game against the Forrest City Lady Mustangs Saturday and in the process ended Forrest City's softball season.
The two teams met twice during regular season, with each team scoring a victory -- McClellan winning 4-3 on their home field and Forrest City winning 11-7 on their home field.
The two met again Saturday in the semifinals of the Region 4 Tournament at Pine Bluff's Region Park.
The Lady Lions scored four runs in the sixth and three runs in the seventh to erase a 7-1 Forrest City lead in favor of an 8-7 win.
The Lady Mustangs reached the semifinals by turning back Little Rock Central 7-6 in the tournament's first-round game.
In that matchup, Forrest City plated five runs on six hits in the second inning to lead 6-1.
Central scored a single run in the bottom of the second to trail 6-2 before the Lady Mustangs made it 7-2 with a single run in the third.
That was the end of the scoring for Forrest City.
The Lady Tigers rallied for four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to cut Forrest City's lead to 7-6 and threatened in the sixth before Kanetra Pendleton started a triple play to shut down the Lady Tigers.
Central had two runners on in the seventh but couldn't advance either past second base as the Lady Mustangs held on for the win.
Jessica Lewis scored twice for Forrest City against Central while Abby Townsend, Pendleton, Katrina Wynne, Rachel Sims and Katie Murry each scored single runs.
That set up the semifinal game against McClellan, who had defeated West Helena in their first-round matchup.
The Lady Mustangs scored one run in the second and added four runs in the third to lead 5-0. A two-run fourth put the Lady Mustangs in front 7-0 before McClellan pushed a run across the pate in the bottom of the fourth.
The Lady Lions went on to score four runs on three hits and one Forrest City error in the sixth and won the game in the seventh by scoring three runs on five hits.
Krystal Weaver and Sims scored twice for the Lady Mustangs while Townsend, Lewis and Kennisha Aldridge scored single runs.
Forrest City ends the year at 11-6, the second best record for a Lady Mustangs team.
Forrest City won 65 percent of their games this season and won the 6-East conference title.
Kimberly Hoots led the team at the plate with 27 hits and a .628 batting average. Hoots also led the team with nine walks and connected for a team-high six triples to go along with her 16 singles.
Lewis led the team by scoring 27 runs with Townsend a close second with 26. Townsend led the team in singles hit with 21 and tied Leslie Jayroe with four doubles each.
Pendleton smacked seven home runs for the season while Lewis had three and Hoots and Jayroe had two each.
Pendleton drove in a team-high 27 runs.
As a team, the Lady Mustangs pounded out 199 hits in 427 at bats and finished the year with a team batting average of .466.
The Lady Mustangs are set to make the move to fast-pitch softball next season.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
POCAHONTAS--The stay for the four teams from the 6AA Conference was short and not very sweet Saturday at the Region 3 Slow-Pitch Softball Tournament at Pocahontas.
Palestine-Wheatley, Barton, Hazen and Carlisle each suffered first-round defeats Saturday to the four teams from the 3AA North thus ending their seasons.
The Lady Patriots' bid for a third straight state tournament berth fell short when the team lost to Brookland 7-2 in the opening-round game..
"We beat ourselves," said Palestine-Wheatley Head Coach Beverly Bass. "We don't have any excuses. We should have beaten Brookland."
The 3AA North teams dominated the the other three 6AA teams as well with Hoxie rolling up Hazen 18-1; Corning taking down Barton 13-6 and Pocahontas thumping Carlisle 11-3.
Hoxie and Corning held on to win their semifinal games and will play for the regional tournament title today at 4 p.m. Both will head to the Class AA state tournament which begins Saturday at Brockwell.
Brookland opened a 3-0 lead over the Lady Patriots in the first inning when P-W starting pitcher Amanda Riffle issued a pair of uncharacteristic walks which led to a pair of unearned runs.
The Lady Patriots got one of the runs back in their half of the inning when Nikki bass walked and scored.
Andrea Cooper scored on a base hit by Beth Varvil in the second inning as P-W cut Brookland's lead to 3-2.
That would be all of the P-W scoring as Brookland scored additional runs in the fourth and fifth innings to take home the victory.
The Lady Patriots were held to just six hits in the game. Varvil had two of those six hits.
The Lady Patriots end the year at 11-3 overall.
Palestine-Wheatley, Forrest City, Barton and Carlisle will all switch to fast-pitch softball next year.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
All four of the Forrest City Mustang track relay teams qualified for the Class AAAAA state tournament.
The relay teams ran to three, second-place finishes and one third-place finish at Thursday's AAAAA-East Conference Meet, to earn the trip to state competition.
In individual competition, Daniel Echols qualified for state in the 100-meter dash while Evan Haggins qualified in the 200-meter dash. Joseph Wilson and Willie Wade earned their way into the state meet with solid times in the 400 and 800-meter runs.
Travis Hurst ran third in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles to qualify while Ray Dixon qualified in both the shot put and the discus.
Montrell Ashcraft finished fourth in the triple jump to qualify.
All state qualifiers, senior boys and senior girls, will be involved in preliminary competition Friday at Russellville.
East Arkansas Community College will once again sponsor a youth soccer camp for youths, ages five through 13.
The camp, which will be divided into two age group sessions, will be held June 11-15 and will focus on skills and tactical awareness using a number of controlled scrimmage games.
The camp for youths, ages five through eight, will be held in the mornings, from 8:30 until 10:30 a.m.
The camp for ages nine through 13, will begin at 10:30 a.m. and last until 12:30 p.m.
Preregistration fees are $60 while those campers siging up on the day of camp registration will be charged $75.
For more information, call Beth Bridgforth at (870) 633-4480 ext. 261 or Steve Hirayama at the Germantown Soccer Club (901) 755-6688.
The Forrest City American Legion baseball program will hold tryouts, for youths ages 14 through 18, Saturday and Sunday, May 5-6, at the Sports Complex.
The tryouts are scheduled to begin at 2 p.m., each day.
The Forrest City legion team this year will be coached by Jason Long.
Those attending the tryouts should being their own baseball equipment.