By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Marion Stars 8-year-old team walked through the "June Jam" pitching machine tournament unblemished.
The tournament, played Saturday and Sunday at the Sports Complex, featured Olympic-style pool play on Saturday with the team from each pool with the best record advancing to Sunday's championship game and the two second-best teams headed for the consolation game.
Marion finished the tournament at 4-0, winning all three of their pool games and then defeating the Wynne 8-year-old All-Stars, 11-1 in Sunday's final.
McCrory took home the third place trophy, defeating Olive Branch, Miss., 19-4, in Saturday's consolation game.
The eight tournament teams were placed into two pools with Olive Branch, Miss., West Memphis All Stars, Wynne 8-year-olds and the Marion Stars (7-year-old) in Pool A.
Pool B was comprised of Marion Stars (8's), McCrory Jaguars, Forrest City Travelers and the Wynne 7-year-olds.
The Forrest City Travelers All-Star team finished 1-2 and failed to make the championship round.
Marion defeated McCrory 10-7; Forrest City 18-10 and Wynne 7's 18-8 on Saturday to win their pool.
The Travelers defeated the Wynne 7's 25-1 in the first game before losing to Marion 18-10 and McCrory 18-9.
Wynne reached the finals by defeating the Marion 7's 17-7; Olive Branch, Miss. 15-4 and the West Memphis All Stars 12-8 to go 3-0 in their pool.
The West Memphis All Stars finished 0-3 in the pool losing to Olive Branch 6-4; Marion 7's 14-12 and Wynne 8's 12-8.
The Marion 7's finished 1-2 in pool play with a win over West Memphis 14-12 and losing to Wynne 8's 17-7 and Olive Branch 15-5.
In Sunday's championship game, Michael Snipes and B.J. Vaughn each scored twice to lead Marion.
Wynne scored their only run in the top of the first inning to lead 1-0 before Marion scored twice in the bottom of the inning to lead 2-1.
Marion added a single run in the second, three runs in the third, two runs in the fourth and three runs in the fifth to end the game under the mercy rule.
Most of the teams will move on to the Cal Ripken Tournament to be played at Sherwood in July.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Giffin's Grins t-ball team took head coach Barry Hodges -- and all of the parents -- for quite a wild ride Saturday at the second annual postseason T-Ball Tournament.
Giffin's won the tournament, defeating M&T Paving twice, 25-13 and 20-19 in the "if" championship game.
While M&T Paving stayed in the winners bracket, Giffin's lost the first game of the tournament and then played and won seven straight games -- all back-to-back -- to win the tournament title.
Their only loss was against M&T, who turned a rare triple play to help win the game.
Giffin's route to the tournament title followed the loser's bracket pathway.
"It was quite a ride," Hodges said Sunday afternoon. "There was a time, late Saturday, when I asked the team if they wanted to keep playing and every one of them said 'yes,' so we hung in there and swept the loser's bracket field."
Hodges finished with everyone he started the day with, except for one player who had to pull out late after injuring his leg.
After losing their first game to M&T Paving, 24-20, Giffin's defeated H&H Monuments 25-9; Western Auto 23-12; Sonic 23-22; Hampton Inn 26-15; FNBEA 21-19; and M&T Paving twice.
FNBEA, the runner up a year ago, finished third while Hampton Inn, last year's tournament champions, finished fourth.
"The Sonic and FNBEA games were probably the two toughest games we played after falling into the loser's bracket," Hodges said. "But the kids just kept coming from behind to get the wins."
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Times-Herald completed their undefeated and untied season Friday in the girls' 12-under fast pitch league.
Times-Herald finished the year at 12-0 after defeating Debbie's Flowers 18-8 in Friday's final game at the Sports Complex.
Giffin's Grins finished second at 8-3-1 while Crowley's Ridge held on to take third place in the league, finishing with a 5-7 mark.
None of the league's five teams elected to take part in the upcoming 12-under District 7 Tournament.
In the girls' 10-under slow pitch league Friday, Sanyo kept its bid for a perfect season alive by putting away Mom's 15-4.
Sanyo moves to 14-0 for the year.
Dr. Schwartz defeated Forrest City Bank 11-10 to stay in second place in the league at 12-3, one game ahead of Title Company (11-3) a 13-0 winner over Southern Furniture.
Walker Insurance downed Food Giant 15-0 while True Value defeated Steven's 10-4.
The 10-under league has three regular season playing dates left on the schedule.
Sanyo and Dr. Schwartz have entered the upcoming District 7 Tournament to be played at Marion.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Forrest City dropped another doubleheader Friday at the Sports Complex to Stuttgart.
The Forrest City A squad lost 13-4 in the first game and the AAA team fell 6-2 in the nightcap in American Legion action.
Forrest City will travel to Newport today.
Stuttgart scored twice in the first inning to lead 2-0 in the nightcap.
They added two runs in the top of the fourth for a 4-0 lead before Charles Gaines singled and scored on a hit by Clyde Kennedy in the bottom of the fourth to put Forrest City on the scoreboard.
Stuttgart added single runs in the fifth and sixth while Forrest City picked up a single run in the bottom of the fifth when Mark Lewis singled and scored on Brandon Cochran's RBI base hit.
Colby McKennon gave up all six Stuttgart runs on eight hits in his complete game effort.
Forrest City had nine hits in the game.
Stuttgart opened a 5-0 lead in the A game after batting around in the first and then added two runs in the second, one run in the fourth and five runs in the seventh.
McKennon, Dustin Gore, Marcus Hancock and Kennedy each scored for Forrest City.
Forrest City will be on the road until July 4 when they will host Newport.
The Forrest City Lady Mustangs basketball team finished third at the Team Camp held at Arkansas State University at the Convocation center.
The Lady Mustangs finished the competition with a 10-2 overall mark.
Forrest City defeated Cord-Charlotte 85-33, Kelly, Mo. 41-22, nettleton 52-32 last Thursday and returned Friday to down Greene County Tech 34-22, Valley View 36-23, Doniphan, Mo., 37-29 and Sylvan Hills 38-24.
On Saturday, the team lost to Mount St. Mary 55-35 but defeated Cord-Charlotte 52-27, Nettleton 39-30, and was awarded a forfeit win over Rogers.
The Lady Mustangs fell to Hatley, Mo. 51-44.