By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
CABOT -- The Sylvan Hills Bears and the Springdale Bulldogs are making a habit of playing each other in the Class AAAAA State Tournament.
Last year, the Bears eliminated the Bulldogs 7-2 in the first-round of the tournament played at Pine Bluff.
Two years ago, it was the Bulldogs sending the Bears home 14-4.
The two teams meet for the third time in as many seasons today at 5 p.m. in quarterfinal action at Brian Conrade Field in Cabot.
Sylvan Hills defeated Sheridan 8-1 on Saturday while Springdale outlasted Conway 11-5 Monday to set up what could be called the "rubber game."
In other games played Monday, Little Rock Mills advanced by turning back Little Rock Catholic 8-4, Pine Bluff shut out Fayetteville 3-0 and Cabot lost a heartbreaker to Benton 3-2.
Cabot is the first of the four AAAAA-East teams to fall from the bracket.
Sylvan Hills, Mills and Jacksonville remain.
Mills will play Bentonville today while Jacksonville gets Pine Bluff.
Benton draws Russellville in the late game.
On Monday, the Pine Bluff Zebras blanked the Fayetteville Bulldogs simply by covering more ground in the outfield.
Two similar fly balls, one by each team, showed the difference in the two clubs. Brett Thompson's second-inning fly to right field was caught by speedster Corey McCoy.
In the third inning, all Lee Smart's shallow pop fly fell between two fayetteville defenders for a two-run single that ended the scoreless tie.
Pine Bluff went on to post a 3-0 victory.
Pine Bluff coach Billy Bock, in his 19th year at the helm of the Zebras, credited his 27-2 team's defense.
Left-hander Matt Klamm finished with a two-hitter as the Zebras advanced to today's quarterfinal round to play Jacksonville, the fourth seed from the East.
Pine Bluff, the AAAAA-South champ was the lower seed despite a USA Today ranking of 17th in the nation. Fayetteville was the AAAAA-West Conference co-champion.
Bock's money is on Russellville to win the state title.
"They've got the hitting, the pitching, the coaching and the cheerleaders," Bock said.
The Bulldogs were shutout for just the second time this season. The other blanking came in the season opener against Tulsa Union.
Mills advanced to quartefinal play by taking advantage of seven walks issued by Catholic High pitching.
Rocky Weaver went the distance for the Comets to pick up the win.
Springdale jumped out early against Conway, scoring eight runs in the first inning enroute to the 11-5 win, setting up the meeting against Sylvan Hills.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
HUGHES -- Hughes' Basketball Coach Wes Swift made the toughest decision of his coaching career Monday.
Even tougher than guiding his super-talented Blue Devil team to the Class AAA state title and a 35-1 overall record just two short months ago.
Swift, 31, the 2001 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Coach of the Year, was named the new head basketball coach at Shiloh Christian Monday.
Swift becomes the second coach to leave Hughes for Shiloh. Gus Malzahn left Hughes after the 1995 football season and helped turn Class AA Shiloh into a statewide football powerhouse.
Swift hopes he can do the same for the Shiloh basketball program. He is in charge of the entire Shiloh basketball program, from seventh grade up.
"I'll probably coach both the junior and senior boys this next season," Swift said. "I have good assistants to work with but I want to have a hands-on approach coming in."
Swift, who was chosen from about 20 applicants for the position, replaces Dan Jones, who was relieved of his duties last month.
"This opportunity came about last month when I was up here for the AAO Top 25 Camp," Swift said. "I talked with some people about the possibility and I knew at that time that it would take a career move to make me leave Hughes."
While he expects Shiloh to be a challenge, Swift said he was excited about the move to Northwest Arkansas.
"It's a good opportunity for me professionally and spiritually," Swift said.
Swift, a Sherwood native and a 1988 graduate of Sylvan Hills High School in 1988 and from Central Arkansas in 1994, started his coaching career at Gillett, where his first team went 0-22.
He spent one more season at Gillett before taking over for former Hughes coach Charles Patrick, coaching both the junior and senior boys.
His record with the senior Blue Devils 86-36 record.
"I'm leaving some really good kids at Hughes and that's what made this decision really tough for me," Swift said. "They're down and upset and I understand that. I'm sure they really don't understand. We had a great player-coach bond with this Hughes team.We won the state title and we were going to have a lot of players coming back and the chance to defend that title."
Shiloh Christian is expected to move up to Class AAA when the new classifications are announced for the 2002-2003 school year, while Hughes may slip down to the Class AA level.
Swift said his plans now include finishing out the year at Hughes and working toward making the move to Northwest Arkansas in mid to late June.
"Hopefully in July we can get started on basketball," Swift said. "I would like to take the kids to a couple of basketball
Swift plans to continue to work on his master's degree at the University of Arkansas. He said he'll have to wait and see if his up-tempo style of basketball will work with the Saints.
He makes the move to Shiloh with high goals.
"Hopefully in the next five years we'll get Shiloh talked about in basketball the same way it's talked about in football," Swift said. "Going in, we have an opportunity to get some wins under our belt. I'm not saying we'll win a state title in the first year, but we can win immediately and we have a shot to get to the state tournament."
Swift spent Monday on the Shiloh campus and called the school and its programs "first class all the way."