By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Erica Smith was just a little uncomfortable Thursday when the Palestine-Wheatley School District surprised her with a special ceremony at Patriot Gym.
School Superintendant Jimmy Allen read a letter proclaiming Thursday "Erica Smith Day" at the school and the senior basketball player -- recently named the best female player in the state -- watched as the school officially retired her No. 50 jersey, which was encased in glass.
Another of Smith's jerseys will hang in the Women's Hall of Fame's Ring of Honor. The Hall of Fame is located in Knoxville, Tenn.
She is the first Palestine-Wheatley athlete to have her jersey retired.
Smith was named Ms. Basketball by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette last month adding that honor to several others this season, including being named a Parade All-American, the Gatorade Arkansas Player of the Year and the Class AA Most Valuable Player.
Smith, a 5-10 forward concluded her prep basketball career with the Lady Patriots on March 10, when she helped lead the team to the Class AA state championship.
It was the Lady Patriots' third consecutive trip to the Class AA championship game. P-W finished second to Greenland in 1999 and 2000.
They defeated Greenland in the semifinals of the AA state tournament at Danville to get back to the title game this season.
During Thursday's ceremony, several of Smith's family members, friends, school faculty members and others took time at the podium taling about Smith's career and achievements.
Smith will attend Louisiana Tech in Ruston, La., beginning this fall, where she is on a full basketball scholarship.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Jim Bailey struck out 11 Food Giant hitters through six strong innings Thursday night to lead Mulay Plastic to a 5-4 season-opening win in Bambino 9-10.
Mulay's win overshadowed a 15 strike out performance by Food Giant pitcher Raymond Patillo.
Bailey got offensive help from Quintarius Powell, who scored twice on a pair of walks and single runs by John Jones, Kameron Green and Zach Rodgers.
Mulay scored twice in the top of the first inning but fell behind 3-2 after Food Giant scored three times in the bottom of the second.
Mulay answered with three runs in the top of the third and then held Food Giant to just one run in the sixth inning to earn the victory.
Patillo, Findley Scott Laws, Zach Hoskins and Rich Jayroe scored single runs for Food Giant.
Patillo hit a solo home run to start the second inning. Two batters later, Hoskins tripled and Trail hit his first homer of the year, a two-run shot.
Mulay and Food Giant are both newcomers to the Bambino League this season.
Napa 13, Title Company 8
It was a rough opener for last year's league champions as Napa scored six times in the top of the sixth inning to put away Title Company 13-8.
Both teams were deadlocked at 7-7 heading into the sixth inning.
Napa got three runs from Barrett Beshears, who hit two home runs.
Beshears connected for a grand slam home run in the sixth inning and finished with five RBIs. Beshears also pitched six innings.
Josh Taylor scored twice for Napa.
Chris Jacobs homered for Title Company and Mark Machen scored twice.
CR Sand 10, Sanyo 0
CR Sand pitched a shutout in their season opener Thursday, rolling past Sanyo 10-0.
Farm Credit 10, McDonald's 8
Farm Credit got two runs each from KeMario Tucker, Jerome McDaniel and Tanner Clark in a season-opening 10-8 win over McDonald's Thursday night.
Louis Driver scored twice for McDonald's.
The Bambino 11-12 League will open their season tonight with a full schedule of games beginning at 6 p.m.
Bonanza will take on POPS on Field 5 and Cochran Auto will meet up with Rotary Club on Field 6. Both games are scheduled for a 6 p.m. start.
Hess Shoes and Taylor Glass will hook up on Field 5 and Taco Bell will battle Vaccaro Lumber on Field 6, Both games begin at 7:30 p.m.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
VIP's scored twice in the bottom of the fifth inning Thursday night to take a 6-5 win over Hunton in Junior Babe Ruth.
Trailing 5-4, VIP's Cory Ashcraft singled and Antonio Jordan walked to start the VIP fifth. Both scored to give the team the win.
Ashcraft scored twice while Jordan, Isaac Davis, Andre Johnson and Kawon Deshon scored single runs.
Hunton scored three runs in the top of the fifth to take a 5-4 lead.
Avian Wright scored twice to lead Hunton while Travis Holoway and Rashad Green scored single runs.
Ridout Lumber 17, Houser's 7
Ridout Lumber plated 14 runs in the second inning to roll past Houser's 17-7 Thursday night.
Ridout used six runs and nine walks to produce the big inning.
Adam Kennedy homered in the inning. Kennedy and Casiday Hankins each scored three times to lead Ridout while Rashad Williams, Ben Daugherty and Marcus Cole each scored twice.
Houser's got two runs from Jimmy Aldridge.
Planter's Bank 14, Freeman's 0
Thomas Brown and Desmond Golatt each scored three runs Thursday to lead Planter's Bank to a 14-0 shut out win over Freeman's.
Planter's led 5-0 after one inning and 8-0 after two innings.
Tyler Spencer worked five innings to record the no-hit shutout. he struck out 10 Freeman's hitters along the way.
Only two Freeman players reached base during the game -- one on a walk and one by way of a Planter's Bank error.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Lion's Club suffered 19 strikeouts but still managed to take a 15-13 win over Mr. T. Auto Thursday in Minor League play.
Larudius Hartway scored four times while Colt Pentecost and Jordan Day scored three runs each to push Lion's Club to the win.
Hartway hit two home runs and Jacob Tittle hit one in the win.
Brothers Devin and Ryan Green each scored three runs for Mr. T while Davyon McKinney scored twice.
Lion's Club scored six times in the top of the seventh to break a 9-9 tie.
M&T Paving 24, Easley Law Firm 2
M&T Paving had very little trouble against Easley Law Firm Thursday, needing only three innings to score a 24-2 win.
M&T scored 10 runs in the second inning and finished up the victory by plating 10 more runs in the third.
Every M&T player scored at least one run with Scott Gracey, Cory Deere, Tyler Clark and Kyle Gaskin scoring three runs each.
Easley Law got single runs from Robert Lee and Anthony Wallace, both in the second inning.
Easley's only other hit came from Brandon Granberry.
Taylor-Casbeer will take on Farm Bureau tonight at 6 p.m. while Joey's Muffler draws Dr. Beasley at 7:30, both games scheduled for Field 7.
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.
The Palestine youth softball and baseball program will hold a "Sign-Up Day" Saturday, May 5, according to program director Mark Main.
It is the final day to register for T-Ball League (ages 4-7); Little League (ages 8-12); Pony League (ages 13-15) or for girls' softball, ages 8-15.
Sign-ups will be from 9 a.m. until 12 noon, at Palestine City Hall.
Registration fees are $25 for one child and $40 for two or more in the same family.
Main said the league will start play on May 22.
For more info, call Main at 581-2948, 240-7312 or 633-7986
Meanwhile, the Forrest City youth baseball and softball league program is set to begin play on Tuesday, May 1.
All games will be played at the Sports Complex.
by FRED CONLEY
Taming Cabot's Greystone Golf Course and winning the AAAAA-East conference golf championship Tuesday was the easy part for the Forrest City Lady Mustangs golf team.
The girls fired a 200 team score to win the first-ever golf championship for Forrest City. The girls had gone undefeated during regular season.
Getting to Cabot last Monday, for the practice round, proved to be much more difficult -- especially for head coach Tommy Wheetley.
Hopefully, the trip back to Cabot this coming Monday for the Class AAAAA state tournament won't be quite as difficult for the team or for Wheetley.
The run of bad luck began close to Hazen.
Wheetley was driving one of the smaller school minibuses -- because he has only three girls on the team -- Sarah Eldridge, Krista Coleman and Hannah Cohn.
It was near the first Hazen exit that the inside rear tire on the bus went flat.
A call for help went out and Hannah's mother, Marsha, who was making the trip in her car and trailing the bus, picked up the girls and headed on to Cabot.
The girls had a 2 p.m. practice time and the team had left Forrest City at noon.
An hour and a half wait began for Wheetley. When help finally arrived and the tire was fixed, Wheetley returned to his journey.
About a mile and a half down the freeway, the front left tire on the bus blew.
Another hour and a half wait.
By the time Wheetley got to Cabot, it was close to 5 p.m. and the girls were just coming off the practice course.
But wait, there were other problems.
There was a miscommunication somewhere between the officials at Greystone and the girls involved in the conference tournament.
They had to play on the Cypress Creek portion of Greystone, the newer and wider of the two courses, rather than the Mountain Springs Course, which was hosting another tournament and which would be the course on which the tournament would be played Tuesday.
So, the practice round didn't help the girls at all.
Sarah and Krista had both played the Mountain Springs course before but courses sometimes change and it had been a year since the girls had been on this particular course.
But there's always hope for the future.
All three Forrest City girls qualified for the upcoming Class AAAAA state tournament, which will be played Tuesday, May 8, right back at Cabot's Greystone Course.
Monday, the girls will return to Cabot and will hopefully get their practice round on the Mountain Springs Course, this time.
This time, Wheetley isn't taking any chances.
"This time, I'm going to take my truck," Wheetley said. "We're going to load their equipment up and go. I was trying to follow district guidelines this week by taking the bus, when I really wanted to take my own vehicle. Monday, you can rest assured I will do that."
Wheetley knows the state competition will be tougher than the conference tournament, but has confidence that his girls can play well.
"I think Sarah can finish in the top 10 in the state," Wheetley said. "She certainly has the ability. The state tournament will be a good experience for all three girls."