By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
NORTH LITTLE ROCK -- For five and a half innings, the Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots appeared to be on their way to the semifinals of the Region 6 Fast Pitch Softball Tournament on Saturday.
Then, Guy-Perkins found their bats.
The Lady Patriots scored four runs in the top of the first inning and held that advantage until the Lady Thunderbirds scored five times in the bottom of the sixth to take a 5-4 win, ending Palestine-Wheatley's first full season of fast pitch softball.
The Lady Pats finish the year at 11-6.
Guy-Perkins, also in their first full season of fast pitch, were eliminated from the regional when a 6-1 loss to Gillett in the semifinals.
Gillett will play Woodlawn tonight at 7 p.m., in the tournament championship.
By making tonight's final, both Gillett and Woodlawn have assured themselves of a berth in the upcoming Class A-AA Fast Pitch State Tournament, to be played at Sherwood's Optimist Park.
Woodlawn defeated Conway St. Joseph 3-2 in Saturday's first game and then defeated Pine Bluff St. Joseph to reach the finals.
Palestine-Wheatley took advantage with single runs by Nikki Bass, Libby Martin, Jenny Loewer and beth Varvil in the top of the first, using several fielding errors by Guy-Perkins.
"We made some uncharacteristic mistakes that we don't generally make as a ball club," Guy-Perkins Coach John Hutchcraft said.
Martin, P-W's pitcher began to show signs of fatigue in the bottom of the sixth and walked the bases loaded.
"Then Guy-Perkins just started hitting some line drive shots and that was basically it," P-W Coach Beverly Bass said. "We had another chance in the top of the seventh, but we didn't hit the ball."
Both schools should return strong teams next season. P-W loses only three seniors while Guy-Perkins returns everyone from this season's senior-less team.
*The Palestine-Wheatley Athletic Banquet will be held Monday, May 6, at the high school cafeteria and will begin at 6 p.m.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Forrest City Mustangs finished second last Thursday at the AAAAA-East Conference Track Meet at Jonesboro.
The Lady Mustangs finished fifth.
Both teams are sending several athletes to the upcoming State Meet prelims Friday at Conway.
The Lady Mustangs put up 42 points in their fifth-place finish last week and qualified three of their four relay teams and one individual for state competition.
Jessica Perkins finished second in the long jump (16 feet, eight inches) to qualify for the state meet while the Lady Mustangs 400-meter relay team (Chasna House, Shianekia Blunt, Melissa Humphrey and Perkins) finished third; the 800-meter relay team (House, Blunt, Perkins and Deosha Agnew) finished second and the mile-relay team (Blunt, Caronica Randle, Chiklisha McDaniel and House) ran third, qualifying all three teams.
The two-mile relay team just missed qualifying for state, finishing fifth.
Perkins ran sixth in the 200-meter dash while Agnew was second in the triple jump with a leap of 32 feet, three inches).
The Mustangs qualified three of its relay team for the state meet -- the 400, 800 and 3,200-meter teams.
The 400-meter team (Lafayette Smith, Daniel Echols, Montrell Ashcraft, Chevelle Wilson) ran first in a time of 43.93 while the 800-meter relay team (Smith, Echols, Wilson and Kenyatae Chism) ran second behind Blytheville.
The two-mile relay team was comprised of Willie Wade, Ballard, Kelton Hamlin and Vince Millen.
Echols, Smith and Wilson each qualified for state in the 100-meter dash while Smith and Wilson qualified in the 200-meter run.
In the 400-meter run, Wade and Ballard ran one-two to make the state cut. The same two finished three and four in the 800-meter run to qualify.
Justin Jones will represent the Mustangs at the state meet by finishing third in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles.
Ballard and Ashcraft finished third and fourth in the triple jump to qualify for the state meet and Ray Dixon won the shot put with a toss of 49 feet, five inches to qualify.
Dixon also qualified in the discus, finishing fourth with a throw of 122 feet, six inches.
Wilson was fifth in the high jump while Millen was seventh.
The Forrest City Lady Mustang golf team will defend their AAAAA-east Conference title beginning Tuesday at Cabot's Greystone Country Club.
Led by senior Sarah Eldridge, the Lady Mustangs will open play at the 2002 Conference Championships Tuesday morning.
Eldridge is joined this time around by Hannah and Emily Cohn and Mary Dudley Hodges.
The Lady Mustangs finished the regular season undefeated with one tie.
A year ago, the Lady Mustangs shot 200 as a team to win the school's first-ever conference title in golf. Eldridge shot an 89 to lead Forrest City.
Hannah Cohn finished seventh overall a year ago.
Coach Tommy Wheetley likes the team's chances going in.
"I feel good about being able to defend as conference champs," Wheetley said. "But at this stage of the game, you never know. We didn't get to see everyone during the regular season, so I'm not sure what to expect."
The girls played a practice round on Friday.
* PREP SPORTS
FAST PITCH SOFTBALL
Saturday's Results
Region 6 Tournament at Burns Park, NLR
Guy-Perkins 5, P-W 4
Gillett defeated Arkansas Baptist
Woodlawn 3, Conway St. Joseph 2
PBluff St. Joe defeated Hazen
Gillett 6, Guy-Perkins 1
Woodlawn defeated PB St. Joseph
Monday, April 29
Woodlawn vs Gillett, 7 p.m.
SLOW PITCH SOFTBALL
Monday, April 29
District 2 Slow Pitch Tournament at Augusta's Stanley Park
McCrory vs Osceola, 10 a.m.
Clarendon vs Tuckerman, 11:30 a.m.
West Helena vs Marked Tree
Hughes vs Cross County, 1 p.m.
Semifinal Games Saturday at 2:30 and 4 p.m.
HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL
Tuesday, April 30
Forrest City at Cabot, 5 p.m.
HIGH SCHOOL GOLF
Tuesday, April 30
AAAAA-East Conference Girls' Championship
at Greystone Country Club - Cabot