By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
CABOT--The AAAAA-East got off to a great start Saturday at the Class AAAAA state tournament at Cabot.
Sylvan Hills, the East champion advanced to Tuesday's quarterfinal round with an 8-1 victory over Sheridan.
The Bears await the Conway-Springdale winner. A year ago, Sylvan Hills eliminated Springdale from the same tournament.
The Jacksonville Red Devils, who entered the tournament as the fourth seed from the East, shocked Little Rock Central, the top-seeded team from the AAAAA-Central, 7-4.
The Red Devils will face the Fayetteville-Pine Bluff winner Tuesday at 12 noon.
The final two East representatives -- Cabot and Little Rock Mills -- will play first-round games today.
Sylvan Hills' pitcher Nick Miller held Sheridan to just one hit Saturday in the Bears' win. And it was a fluke hit.
Sylvan Hills and Sheridan had the 5 p.m. start. As the sun was setting, Sheridan catcher Stan Mosely's routine fly ball fell in for a hit when Sylvan Hills' left fielder Chad Duncan lost the ball in the sun.
Sheridan's Josh Anderson, who had walked to get on base, scored on the play.
Other than that, no other Sheridan player came close to even touching Miller, who finished with 11 strike outs and three walks.
Miller retired the first 12 Sheridan batters that he faced before allowing a walk to Craig Manatt.
The Bears scored twice in the bottom of the first inning and added four runs in the fifth inning and two more in the sixth.
Jacksonville stopped Central's season-ending run of eight consecutive victories with a 7-4 win Saturday.
The Red Devils put eight hitters on base in the third inning, to score six of their seven runs, as Central gave up four hits, two walks and committed two errors.
Matt Lane's two-run double highlighted the inning.
In other Saturday games, Bentonville downed Bryant 6-3 and will face the Mills-Little Rock Catholic winner Tuesday.
Bentonville plated five runs in the fifth inning to do the damage against Bryant, who was leading 3-1 headed into the inning.
Despite a shaky fourth inning, Russellville advanced to the second round of the state tournament with an 11-4 victory over North Little Rock in Saturday's final first-round game.
The win moves Russellville into a 7:30 p.m. game Tuesday against either Cabot or Benton.
Those two teams will square off tonight at 7:30 p.m.
Abel Newton gave Russellville (26-3) a good early start with his three-run homer just over the 375-foot sign in left-center field.
Pine Bluff and Fayetteville will provide early sparks today when they open the second day of the tournament aty 12 noon.
Pine Bluff stumbled to a third-place finish in the AAAAA-South Conference while Fayetteville nailed down a AAAAA-West Conference co-championship by winning 12 consecutive league games.
The Fayetteville-Pine Bluff winner is faced with an obstacle of having to win three games in three days to get back to Charlie Baum Stadium for Saturday's finale.
The only other team that would appear to stack up with Fayetteville and Pine Bluff is top-ranked Russellville. Despite the premature first-round matchup of titans, the Cyclones are on the opposite side of the bracket.
Russellville is the only team to beat Fayetteville in conference play, dealing the Bulldogs two defeats on the first evening of league play back in March.
Tournament Director Johnny White said earlier today that the tournament will continue today at scheduled, despite some heavy rain that moved through the central portion of the state over night.
"We got an early start working the fields this morning and so far everything looks good, at least at this point," White said.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Under the new "park" rules, Clay Funeral Home and Food Giant were forced to settle for an 18-18 tie Friday in 16-under girls' fast-pitch softball.
It is the first game this season to end in a tie under the new rule for the 12-under and 16-under fast-pitch softball leagues that states "tie games will not be played out. Once the time limit has expired, the game will end after the bottom of the current inning being played, regardless of the score."
The time limit for the 12-under and 16-under games is 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Clay had taken an 18-14 lead with four runs in the top of the fourth. Food Giant scored four runs in the bottom of the inning to tie when the game was called.
Coaches from both teams said their players wanted to continue the game until there was a winner, but were not allowed to do so under the new rule.
In other 16-under games Friday, Dr. St. John, playing their first game of the year, got two runs each from Loren Andrews, Kara Siler, Kristin Rodriguez and Torrie Willis in a 13-5 win over Bonanza.
Alicia Kennedy scored twice for Bonanza.
McDonald's got three runs each from Fallon Parker, Jennifer Ballard and Jessica Lewis in a 19-9 win over Sanyo. Sanyo got three runs from Takeena Cunningham and two runs from Bridget Clark and Samantha Green.
10-Under League
Title Company blew past True Value 13-2 Friday to move to 2-0 for the season in girls' 10-under slow-pitch softball.
Forrest City Bank rebounded from an opening season loss to double up Southern Furniture 14-7.
Food Giant scored three runs in the bottom of the third inning and then held off Steven's in the top of the fourth to take home a 7-5 win and stay unbeaten at 2-0.
Sanyo, used a big five-run, first inning to put away Walker Insurance 13-3 to create a three-way tie for first and finally Dr. Schwartz rolled up Mom's 7-2.
12-Under League
Times-Herald continued their winning ways Friday by taking a 13-6 win over Giffin's Grins in 12-under fast-pitch softball.
Debbie's Flowers took a 13-9 victory over Crowley's Ridge in their first game of the new season.
All three of the softball leagues will return to play on Tuesday.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
RUSSELLVILLE -- The Forrest City Mustangs qualified a pair of sprinters and one relay team for the upcoming Class AAAAA state tournament.
At last Friday's AAAAA Track and Field championships, held at Russellville's Cyclone Stadium, Joseph Wilson ran a 49.43 in the 400-meter race to qualify while Willie Wade ran the 800-meter run in 2:00.90 to qualify.
The 800-meter relay team finished eighth to get in under the wire at the state tournament.
Forrest City finished the relay in 1:32.66 to qualify.
In the girls' side of the championships, Forrest City senior Verika Robinson was the only Lady Mustang to qualify for the state tournament, running a 5:53.62 in the 1,600-meter run to finish sixth.
The AAAAA state tournament will be held Friday, May 11, at Hot Springs.
Russellville won the 3,200-meter relay in the only boys' championship event at the meet.
Bryant won the girls 3,200-meter relay.
Neither Forrest City team placed in the 3,200-meter relay.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Taylor-Casbeer improved to 2-0 for the season Friday, defeating Farm Bureau 15-2 in Minor League action at the Sports Complex.
Taylor-Casbeer scored nine runs in the top of the second inning to put the game out of reach.
Brian Morgan scored three runs for the winners while Josh Brock, Charles Anderson, Akeem Bogart and Ladarius Townsend scored two runs each.
Bogard and Zach Trail each hit home runs in the game.
Farm Bureau, 0-2 for the year, got their two runs from A.J. Martin and Andre Dulaney. Martin singled and scored in the second inning and Dulaney plated his run in the third.
Martin had the only two hits for Farm Bureau.
Joey's Muffler 15, Dr. Beasley 12
Joey's Muffler scored eight runs on nine hits in the top of the fifth inning which led to a 15-12 win over Dr. Beasley Friday night.
Jacki Jackson hit a solo home run in the inning and Larry Smith hit a three-run homer.
Matthew Vaughn and Smith each scord three runs while Michael Ludwig, Drew Poindexter and Daniel Davenport scored two runs each.
Dr. Beasley put up six runs in the bottom of the fifth before the rally fell short.
Kendall Lee had a two-RBI triple in the inning. Kevin Sullivan hit a three-run homer in the fourth inning.
Sullivan and Drew Sugg scored three runs each for Beasley while Calvin Hodges scored twice.
Weather permitting, Easley Law will take on Mr. T Auto tonight at 6 p.m. and M&T Paving will hookup with Lion's Club at 7:30 p.m.
The Forrest City adult men's and women's softball leagues will begin play on Monday, May 14, at the Sports Complex.
The men's league is comprised of 10 teams.