By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Ridout couldn't hold their early lead against Union Planter's Bank Thursday night in Junior Babe Ruth League action, losing 13-11.
Leading 5-2 after two innings, Ridout's bats went silent in the third and fourth innings while Union Planter's found their stroke, scoring eight runs on four hits, three walks and two errors to lead 10-5.
Ridout got two runs in the fifth to cut the lead to 10-7 and four in the sixth to produce the final.
Cassidy Hankins went six innings for Planter's.
Bruce Carnes scored three times for Planter's while Ivan Gardner, Hankins and Thomas Brown scored two runs each.
Kiel Smith led Ridout with three runs while Justin Ross added two runs.
Planter's improves to 6-1 for the year while Ridout falls to 2-4.
Freeman stayed unbeaten in JBR play Thursday, taking down Fred's 15-7.
Casey Hughes led the Freeman offense by scoring three runs. Kendall Rucker, Terrance Ware and Darry Banks scored two runs each.
Kentrell Buchanan, Rylan Nimocks and Bud Heath led Fred's.
Nimocks went the distance from the mound for Fred's.
The second annual Arkansas Fellowship of Christian Athletes Sports Camp for Forrest City students, boys and girls, who will be entering grades fifth through ninth, will be held July 10-13 at Mustang Arena. Cost per student is $10.
The camp will be divided into two sessions each day and camp registration is limited to 100 students per session.
The fifth, sixth and seventh-grade students will attend the morning session each day from 8:30 until 11:30 a.m. Students should be at Mustang Arena at 8 a.m.
The second or afternoon session will be for the eighth and ninth-grade students and will be from 1:30 until 4:30 p.m. each day. Students should at the Arena at 1 p.m.
Students attending should wear comfortable clothing, tennis shoes and bring a bottle of water. All students attending should eat before coming to the camp and all students should be picked up at the end of the camp.
Several college athletes will serve as camp instructors and include Marlon Banks, a former basketball player at Wynne now attending Lyon College; Graham Hale of Conway, who is attending the University of Arkansas (Fayetteville); Mandy Gray of Alma; Elizabeth Eggman of Rogers; Jon David Parker of Batesville, attending Lyon College and playing basketball and golf; Rebecca Martin of Bendena, Kan.; Megan Kale of Fort Smith and Josh Swinea of Ravendon Springs, Ark.
For more information about the camp, contact Sue Jayroe at 261-1893 or 630-0614.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Barnes and Sanyo are the only two unbeaten teams in the adult men's softball league.
They met Thursday night.
As of Friday morning, the two teams are still unbeaten.
In a game that was played under protest by Sanyo -- after two players were ejected -- program director Kenneth Taylor said he is going to review the situation before awarding a victory or a loss.
Unofficially, the game ended in a 14-10 win for Barnes, but that may not stand up.
"I'm going to look into what happened," Taylor said. "Then I will make a decision. and try to clear this matter up. The ejections probably should not have happened."
That leaves Barnes at 7-0 and and Sanyo at 6-0.
In other men's games Thursday, Kerby's downed TSM Computers 18-8; Gym 2000 put down Greg's 20-5; Morgan edged the Young Guns 6-5; M&T Paving defeated Boar's Head 15-7 and Miller Insurance walked all over Food Giant 17-2.
M&T stands at 6-2 while Kerby's and Gym 2000 are tied in the standings at 5-2.
In women's league play, Clark Appraisals won for the fourth consecutive time beating Purple Haze 16-15 and Chism Concrete stayed undefeated at 8-0 by taking down Mohr Sports 19-10.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Dr. Beasley is on a roll.
Winning just two games total a year ago, the Beasley team doubled that mark Thursday night by winning their third straight game to improve to 4-4 for the year with a 19-11 win over Lion's Club.
The win gives Beasley sole possession of fourth place in the Minor League standings.
In Thursday's other game, Joey's Muffler put away Easley Law 19-15 to strengthen their hold on third place.
Beasley will play twice on Saturday as the league plays make-up games from last month.
They will play Lion's Club in a rematch at 10:30 a.m. and then take on M&T Paving at 1:30 p.m.
Kendall Lee scored four times for Beasley while Quinton Jones, Austin Chapman, Dekovan Fleming, Kevin Sullivan and Philandus Watson scored twice. Calvin Hodges homered for Beasley.
Beasley used a six-run, third inning to lead 12-8 and then added four runs in the fourth and three in the fifth.
Lion's Club got two runs each from Timothy Graham and Jalen Ford. Graham homered for Lion's Club.
Cameron Weeks and Dusty Smith each scored four runs to lead Joey's Muffler on Thursday while Laloyd Hamilton and Reco Smith each hit home runs.
Joey's put together a seven-run second inning to rally from a 4-3 deficit to lead 10-4.
Easley got within 10-7 before Joey's plated four runs in the third to lead 14-7.
Robert Lee homered to lead Easley. John Gilbreath and Michael Leslie scored three runs each.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
L&L Electric won for the fourth consecutive time Thursday night and pushed the season mark to 8-1 in Bambino (11-12) League play.
L&L used three runs from Tyrice Bradley and a combined pitching effort from Bradley and Garritt Clark in a 14-3 win over Taco Bell.
L&L Trailed 2-1 before taking the lead for good with three runs in the bottom of the third inning.
Bradley and Clark held Taco Bell to three runs on five hits and combined to strike out five hitters.
In other Bambino games played Thursday, Pearson Insurance stayed in second place in the league at 7-2 with a 16-0 shut out win over Bonanza led by Mark Machen and Chance Pearson.
Cochran Auto got four runs from Randy Crawford and three runs from Byron Gardner in a 13-7 win over Ray Houser.
Gardner had a single, a double and a home run in the game.
The win keeps Cochran in third place in the league at 6-3 overall.
Cochran led 6-5 after one inning and then held Houser to just two more runs over the final four innings.
Brently Washington scored twice for Houser.
Finally, Taylor Glass won for the second consecutive time, putting away Vaccaro 14-9.
Taylor Glass got four runs each from Trenton Ware and Justin Nosler and two runs from Markese Ware and Donnie Willis Jr.
Markese Ware started on the mound for Taylor and Trenton Ware finished the effort.
Taylor improves to 4-5 for the year.
Taylor led 6-2 after two innings before Vaccaro scored twice in the third to cut the lead to 6-4.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
A lot of people have been asking and wondering about Mightymite, the annual triathlon held each July here in Forrest City.
Well, so have I.
I know that a race director has been hired and that the three-stage race has been tentatively scheduled for Saturday, July 20.
Unfortunately, that's about all I know.
Word is that the race director, Wendall Robertson, is supposed to make an appearance at next Tuesday's A&P Commission meeting.
If he does maybe it will be a good time to ask questions and get answers.
This year's Mightymite would be No. 19.
The three-part race begins with a 4/10's of a mile swim across beautiful Lake Dunn at Village Creek State Park. The second leg is a 13-mile bike ride along Crowley's Ridge Road to the East Arkansas Community College campus where the bikes are ditched and the participants run the final three miles to Sam Smith Stadium.
Erik Leamon of Conway won the Mightymite last year and Lesley Brainard of Collierville, Tenn., was the first woman to cross the finish line.
Standout Hughes guard Lonnie Smith has signed to play basketball at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith (Westark) for Kenneth (Doc) Sadler.
Smith helped lead the Blue Devils to the Class AAA state title in 2001 as a junior, but missed 24 games last year after breaking his leg during the football season.
Smith signed earlier this week in simple ceremonies held at Lonoke High School where former Hughes Coach Wes Swift is now coaching.
Swift was the Hughes coach when the team won the state title.
Wednesday, Forrest City American Legion Coach Darrell Gaskin decided to drop out of the The Pepsi OneCreative Edge Classic, a 20-team AAA tournament being played in Jonesboro.
For good reason.
Forrest City is fielding two American Legion teams this summer -- an A squad and a AAA squad.
However, for all intent and purposes, both are A squads.
In American Legion, the younger players play on the A or AA squads while the players, up to age 18, play with the AAA.
Gaskin has just two 18-year-olds on the roster for both teams.
That meant he would have been sending his A squad into the Jonesboro tournament against well-seasoned and well experienced AAA teams.
"I wasn't going to take my kids up there and get embarrassed," Gaskin said. "We have only won one game so far and we are very young. We have some good prospects for the future but right now we are still in the business of learning."
The tournament field is split into five four-team pools. Pool play began Thursday and will run through Saturday at Jonesboro High School's Woodland Field, Nettleton's Raider Field and Arkansas State University's Tomlinson Stadium-Kell Field.
The top six teams will advance to championship play, which begins Saturday night.
The top two teams draw byes to Sunday's semifinals. The championship game is scheduled for Sunday evening at 6 p.m. at ASU.
Back to Forrest City.
The A squad will play a doubleheader at Lonoke Sunday afternoon, beginning at 2 p.m.
* CITY LEAGUES
ADULT SOFTBALL
Men's League
Thursday's Scores
Morgan 6, Young Guns 5
Kerby's 18, TSM Computers 8
M&T Paving 15, Boar's Head 7
Gym 2000 20, Greg's 5
Miller Insurance 17, Food Giant 2
Barnes Timber vs Sanyo (No Decision)
Women's League
Thursday's Scores
Clark Appraisals 16, Purple Haze 15
Chism 19, Mohr Sports 10
YOUTH BASEBALL
T-Ball League
Friday, June 7
National Carpet vs Western Auto, 6 p.m. F1
Parker vs M&T Paving, 6 p.m. F2
Perkins vs Hunton, 6 p.m. F3
Sonic vs Long Real Estate, 6 p.m. F4
Minor League (Pitching Machine)
Thursday's Score
Joey's Muffler 19, Easley Law 15
Dr. Beasley 19, Lion's Club 11
Friday, June 7
Ben's Auto vs T&J Properties, 6 p.m. F7
Devazier vs M&T Paving, 7:30 p.m. F7
Saturday, June 8 (Make Up Games)
Joey's Muffler vs Easley Law, 9 a.m. F7
Dr. Beasley vs Lion's Club, 10:30 a.m. F7
Ben's Auto vs Joey's Muffler, 12 noon F7
M&T Paving vs Dr. Beasley, 1:30 p.m. F7
Junior Bambino League (9-10)
Friday, June 7
Sanyo vs A&C Motors, 6 p.m. F5
Food Giant vs Hill Concrete, 6 p.m. F6
VIPs vs Farm Credit, 7:15 p.m. F5
Title Co. vs Lucas Trucking, 7:15 p.m. F6
Saturday, June 8 (Make Up Games)
Title Co. vs Farm Credit, 9 a.m., F5
Mr. T Auto vs Hill Concrete, 9 a.m. F6
Sanyo vs VIPs, 10:15 a.m. F5
Lucas Trucking vs Food Giant, 10:15 a.m. F6
Title Co. vs A&C Motors, 12 noon F5
VIPs vs Mr. T Auto, 12 noon, F6
Farm Credit vs Hill Concrete, 1:15 p.m. F5
Sanyo vs Lucas Trucking, 1:15 p.m. F6
Bambino League (11-12)
Thursday's Scores
Taylor Glass 14, Vaccaro 9
L&L Electric 14, Taco Bell 3
Pearson Insurance 16, Bonanza 0
Cochran Auto 13, Ray Houser 7
Junior Babe Ruth League (13-15)
Thursday's Scores
Freeman 15, Fred's 7
Union Planter's Bank 13, Ridout 11
GIRLS SOFTBALL
10-Under League (Slow Pitch)
Friday, June 7
Steven's vs McDonald's, 7 p.m. F1
Food Giant vs Dr. Schwartz, 7 p.m. F2
Title Company vs FCity Bank, 7 p.m. F3
True Value vs Sanyo, 7 p.m. F4
Walker Ins. vs So. Furniture, 8 p.m. F2
FCity Bank vs Title Co., 9 p.m. F2
12-Under League (Fast Pitch)
Friday, June 7
McDonald's vs Giffin's Grins, 8 p.m. F1
Crowley's Ridge vs Stone Cold, 8 p.m. F3
Children's Clinic vs Times-Herald, 8 p.m. F4
16-Under League (Fast Pitch)
Friday, June 7
Bonanza vs Boar's Head, 9:15 p.m. F3
Dr. St. John vs Food Giant, 9:15 p.m. F1
Clay vs Sanyo, 9:15 p.m. F4