By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Forrest City and Jonesboro got to the fifth inning Tuesday night before Mother Nature intervened.
That's when the lightning and rain hit the Sports Complex, putting a halt to the scheduled American Legion twinbill as well as sending all of the city's youth baseball and softball teams home early.
It was the first outing of the year for Jonesboro, who was leading 5-0 when the game was suspended.
"The plan is to finish out the last three innings when we go there on June 12," Forrest City Coach Darrell Gaskin said. "Then we will play a complete A game and a complete AAA game. The start time on the schedule is 5 p.m., but we may try to start a little earlier that day."
Of the five runs scored by Jonesboro Tuesday night, only two were earned as Forrest City starter Danny Flowers walked three of the first four batters he faced.
Flowers, Charles Gaines and Jesse Whittemore had the only hits for Forrest City through the first four innings.
The AAA Jonesboro Ricemen are coming off a 35-11 season a year ago.
Like Forrest City, the Ricemen are embarking on a rather lengthy schedule which includes more than 40 regular season games plus several tournaments.
Forrest City and Jonesboro are both members of the Zone 2 conference this season and will play a double round-robin schedule against such teams as Searcy, Batesville, Stuttgart,Wynne, Mountain Home, Newport, Blytheville and Paragould.
Forrest City will have to wait until Sunday before taking the field again when they make their first road trip of the year to Wynne for a scheduled doubleheader starting at 2 p.m.
The Forrest City A squad is 0-3 while the AAA team is 0-2.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The rains ended Tuesday night's youth baseball and softball schedule of games before they got started.
As teams were warming up for the 6 p.m. games, a line of thunderstorms moved through the area cancelling Tuesday's games.
That brings the total of lost games -- in all leagues, including adult men and women's softball -- to 66.
The 10-under girls' softball league and the T-Ball and Junior Bambino Leagues have each been rained out three times already this year.
The Minor (pitching machine) League has lost four playing dates, but only eight games, since the league plays only two games a night.
Joey's Muffler, Easley law and the Lion's Club have suffered three rain outs each in the league.
The 12 & 16-under fast pitch girls' softball leagues were rained out for the first time Tuesday while the men and women's and Bambino and Junior Babe Ruth leagues have only lost one playing date.
At this same time a year ago, the program was only behind 50 games due to rain.
Two years ago, during the 2000 season, the program had lost more than 70 scheduled games at this point.
Make up games in girls' softball and in all leagues except for Bambino (11-12) and Junior Babe Ruth will be played Wednesday, June 5.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Ralph Thompson Memorial Charity Golf Tournament, which is been dubbed "The Ralph," will be held Monday, July 1, at the Forrest City Country Club.
The tournament will benefit the East Arkansas chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Entry fee into the four-man scramble field is $100 per per person and players can form their own team or players can be placed.
Hole sponsorships for $200 per hole, are available.
The tournament will feature many celebrity coaches including John Caliparis, head basketball coach at the University of Memphis, John Thompson, defensive coordinator at the University of Florida and many others from Arkansas and surrounding states.
John Thompson, a former UA coach, is Ralph Thompson's son.
Registration deadline for the tournament is June 21.
The tournament is being sponsored by Nimocks Oil, Exxon and Pepsi Co.
For more details or to enter, call Mallory Parker at (870) 633-3503.
The Forrest City Fireballs 11-12-year-old youth baseball team finished first in a tournament played at Tunica, Miss. this past weekend. The Fireballs, the only Arkansas team in the tournament, went undefeated beating teams from Southhaven and Hernando in the double-elimination style bracket. Earlier this season, the Fireballs finished first in a tournament held at Cabot.
The team members are: Quintarius Powell, Chance Pearson, Jared Northcutt, Mark Machen, Seth Smith, Findley Scott Laws, Garritt Clark, Jim Bailey, Evan Daugherty, Barrett Beshears and Hunter McMahan. Beshears hit a grand slam, over the fence home run in the win over Hernando. The coaches are Terry Laws, Jim Machen and Ronnie Beshears.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
It certainly appears that Michael Bender, Forrest City's new athletic director, is settling in for the long haul.
Unless the people of Forrest City run me off, I plan to stay here," Bender said tongue-in-cheek while speaking to the Rotary Club last week.
"We (my wife and I) are looking for a place to buy here in Forrest City and we want to settle down," Bender said. "I didn't say and I don't mean retire, just settle down."
Bender was hired in March from a list of 10 potential candidates, to replace former athletic director Bill Baxter, who resigned in February after holding the position on a part time basis for six years.
And while it is Bender's first time to actually be in Forrest City, he already had several ties to the area having played with Jim Finch, Jim Williams and brothers Richard and Ray Trail at the University of Arkansas on the Razorback football team.
Bender hasn't been in the AD's hot seat very long but he has already started evaluating the state of Forrest City athletics and the school's 20 coaches.
"I'm trying to figure out what is most important and right now that would be football," Bender said. "We are going to attack all problems within the program head on and if we can't solve it, then we just won't do it. We'll cut it out if we have too."
Bender has already made some much-needed adjustments to the seventh-grade football program by moving long time former high school football assistant coaches Tommy Wheetley and Lewis Etheridge to over see the program.
"We want our seventh-grade football program to be the very best we can make it," Bender said. "By placing these two coaches with the program we feel we have given it a shot in the arm with their many years of experience and knowledge."
Bender is also in the process of moving coaches from one campus to another in an effort to get the coaches in line with the students they are coaching.
"We have high school coaches teaching at other campuses during the day and only being able to spend the athletic practice time with their players," Bender said. "We want to change that. We want these coaches around their players all day."
Bender said a recent meeting with all 20 coaches produced a great deal of insight about the state of Forrest City athletics.
"I didn't come here to coach," Bender said, "I came here to help the coaches we have on staff and we will get the job done. We are not going to take a back-seat to any one. I am especially sick and tired of hearing about Cabot. We have facilities equal to theirs and there is no reason we can't get our programs to the level of theirs."
Bender said he wants each of the Forrest City coaches to go to work with a purpose and to make a difference each day.
"I want them to be cheerleaders because the athletes need that kind of support," Bender said. "It doesn't matter whether its football, basketball, volleyball, baseball, track or whatever, we want all 20 coaches to work toward making a difference."
It's a good thing Bender is settling in for the long haul.
Righting the problem areas in Forrest City athletics won't be an overnight cure.
It will take, not only Bender's firm hand over-seeing and evaluating the program, but it will take a long-term commitment from all of the Forrest City coaches.
My bets are on Bender and the coaching staff.
There is an abundance of coaching talent here. It's up to Bender to utilize it properly.