By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
CABOT -- The Forrest City Mustang golf team finished fifth at Tuesday's AAAAA-East conference tournament played at Cabot's Greystone Course.
While Forrest City's fifth-place finish equalled last year's finish, the overall team score was much better.
Finishing with a team total of 379, the Mustangs bettered last year's round of 415 by 36 strokes.
Cabot rolled to their sixth consecutive conference championship, finishing with a 298 for the tournament. Jonesboro finished second at 320 while West Memphis fired a 335 to finish third and Sylvan Hills placed fourth with a round of 369.
Cabot's J.D. Davis, listed fifth on the team's depth chart, earned medalist honors with a round of 72, edging out West Memphis' Jordan Payne who finished one stroke back at 73.
On the day, Payne missed four birdie putts.
"Payne could have very well been in the 60s had he made those putts," Forrest City Coach Tommy Wheetley said.
In fact, all five Cabot Panthers qualified for state play with Kevin Tipton, Scott Smith, Dennis Curtis and Tyler Yazza all joining Davis.
The state tournament will be held April 22-23 at Greystone.
Forrest City's Chad Halbert three-putted on 18 and missed qualifying individually for the Class AAAAA state tournament by a single stroke.
Halbert finished with a 91. He needed to shoot a 90 to get to state.
"The thing is, He (Chad) was within three feet of the hole," Wheetley said. "All he had to do was par the hole and he would have made the state cut."
With the hole sloping down and the greens as slick as glass, Halbert, putting from the top of the slope, gently tapped his first putt attempt, which rimmed out and picked up speed, coming to rest about five feet on the downhill side of the hole. His uphill putt, with a break, rolled around the cup and came right back to Halbert, leaving the Mustang golfer frustrated and out of state play.
Teammates Josh Coleman and Sawyer Ramsey missed the state qualifying cut by three strokes when each finished with a round of 93.
"Ramsay had a tough day Brian Hacker couldn't stay on the fairway all day. He went from driver to a five iron to a seven iron trying to keep the ball in play," Wheetley said. Hacker finished with a 102.
At the turn, headed to the back nine, the Mustangs were holding on to third.
"When we hit the back nine, the problems began for Hacker and Jake Wade," Wheetley said. "The last nine holes were tough for those two, who have played well for us all season."
Wade finished with a 103 for the day.
"We competed well and played well," Wheetley said. "The scoring just wasn't there for us. Trust me, there isn't anyone any more upset about the day than Hacker. He was confident going in that he was going to shoot in the 80s."
The upside for Wheetley's Mustangs is that his top five golfers -- Halbert, Ramsey, Coleman, Hacker and Wade -- will all be back again next season.
The Mustangs finished the regular season with a 5-4 record.
The girls AAAAA-East conference tournament will be held on April 30, at Cabot.
The Lady Mustangs are the defending conference champions and are favored to repeat.
The Forrest City girls finished the regular season with a 5-0-1 record.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots exploded for 13 runs in the bottom of the third inning Tuesday on their way to a 16-1 rout of Hazen in fast pitch softball action.
The Lady Patriots improve to 9-4 for the year with one regular season game remaining against Barton Thursday.
P-W grabbed a 1-0 lead on a second inning run by Jenny Loewer, who crossed the plate on a sacrifice ground out by Andrea Cooper.
Hazen tied the game in the top of the third using a walk and an RBI triple by Ariel Phelps.
The rest of the game belonged to the Lady Patriots, scoring the 13 runs in the bottom of the inning using six hits and seven walks -- two of those walks coming with the bases loaded.
Hazen contributed to the P-W outburst by committing seven errors in the inning.
Libby Martin, who led the team by scoring three times, ended the game in the bottom of the fourth when she walked and scored to put the 15-run rule after three innings into effect.
Kara Siler, Nikki Bass, Beth Varvil, Cooper, Loewer and Ashley McGraw each scored two runs each while Lauren Dover added a single run.
*The Hughes Lady Blue Devils scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning to defeat Osceola 7-6 in slow pitch softball action Tuesday.
Hughes and Osceola were locked in a 6-6 tie going into the bottom of the seventh. Marley Lemons was 4-for-4 in the game while Monica Petty was 3-for-4 at the plate.
The Lady Blue Devils will be the No. 3 seeded team into the district tournament which will be played Monday at Clarendon.
Hughes will play West Helena in a first round game in the double elimination style bracket.
No game times had been set as of press time.
Amber Vanvoorhies and Latisha James have alternated on the mound for the Lady Blue Devils this season -- the school's first to field a girls' softball team.
* PREP SPORTS
FAST PITCH SOFTBALL
Monday's Scores
Sylvan Hills 11, Forrest City 10
Palestine-Wheatley 9, Gillett 8
Tuesday's Score
Palestine-Wheatley 16, Hazen 1
Thursday, April 18
Jonesboro at Forrest City, 4 p.m.
Palestine-Wheatley at Barton, 4 p.m.
SLOW PITCH SOFTBALL
Tuesday's Score
Hughes 7, Osceola 6
Thursday, April 18
Elaine at Hughes, 3:30 p.m.
HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL
Tuesday's Score
Barton 18, Hughes 2
Thursday, April 18
Forrest City at Sylvan Hills, 4 p.m.