By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriot softball team will open the 2001 season today when they travel to Carlisle to take on the Lady Bison.
The Lady Patriots remained with the slow-pitch style of play this season and are in the 6AA-West conference with Barton, Carlisle, Clarendon, DeValls Bluff, Elaine and Hazen.
Today's scheduled varsity/junior varsity doubleheader game begins at 4 p.m.
The Lady Patriots will be back on the road Tuesday when they travel to Hazen.
A year ago, the Lady Pats qualified for the AA state tournament, where they lost in the first round to Cedarville.
*The Palestine-Wheatley Patriot baseball team have been on the field twice already this year and are 0-2 after losing to Carlisle and Barton.
The Patriots will host West Helena Tuesday beginning at 4 p.m.
*The Forrest City Lady Mustangs will return to play Tuesday when they travel to Osceola for a conference game beginning at 4 p.m.
On Thursday, the Lady Patriots host Bay and then on Saturday, Forrest City will host the first Lady Mustang Invitational Tournament at the Sports Complex.
The Mustang baseball team will host Osceola Wednesday at the Sports Complex.
*In high school track, the Forrest City Mustangs and Blue Junior Mustangs are scheduled to compete in the Blue Devil Relays today at West Memphis High School.
The girls portion of the meet will be held Tuesday.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Arkansas Concrete 10-year-old youth baseball team from Forrest City, finished third over the weekend at the Memphis Travelers Invitational Tournament, played at Millington.
It was the first out of the year for Arkansas Concrete, which returns all of the players from last year's nine-year-old team.
Arkansas Concrete finished third in the Arkansas South Babe Ruth-Cal Ripken State Tournament last summer which earned them the chance to play in the Cal Ripken Southwest Regional Tournament in Plaquemine, La., where they finished 10th.
Arkansas Concrete was the only Arkansas team in the eight-team, round-robin tournament field at Millington.
Arkansas Concrete opened the tournament with a 7-6 loss to the Wolves but rebounded by taking a 10-2 win over Hawks and then rolled past the Rebels 15-7.
Their stay ended with a 12-3 loss to the Wolves.
Arkansas Concrete began practicing in late January and has been utilizing the new gym at the Presbyterian Church to prepare for its upcoming USSSA tournament season.
The team will play in a tournament at Southaven, Miss., April 6,7,8.