By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
JACKSONVILLE -- After dropping a conference varsity doubleheader to Jacksonville Friday evening, the Forrest City Lady Mustangs made a good showing at the Mount St. Mary's tournament on Saturday.
The Lady Mustangs won two of their guaranteed four games at the tournament and missed making the championship tournament bracket by one game.
Teams has to register three victories to advance to the tournament bracket.
At Jacksonville, the Lady Mustangs lost the first of the two varsity games in the bottom of seventh inning when the Lady Red Devils scored twice to break a 6-6 tie for an 8-6 win.
Forrest City led 2-1 after two innings but fell behind 5-2 when Jacksonville plated four runs in the bottom of the third.
Kim Hoots scored the second of her three runs in the fourth inning to get Forrest City within 5-3. Pitcher Stacey Gracey scored in the top of the fifth to make it a one-run game at 5-4 and took a 6-5 lead with single runs by Hoots and Holly Simon in the top of the sixth.
Jacksonville forced a 6-6 tie with one run in the bottom of the sixth and then held Forrest City scoreless in the top of the seventh to set up the game-winning last inning rally.
Gracey gave up the eight runs on nine hits and nine walks.
The Lady Mustangs scored their six runs on 10 hits and one walk.
The Lady Red Devils needed just four innings to shut out the Lady Mustangs 14-0 in the second varsity game.
Forrest City slips to 1-4 in the AAAAA-East and will travel to Searcy today.
At the Mount St. Mary's tournament on Saturday, Forrest City was shut out 8-0 by North Little Rock, beat Van Buren 12-6, lost to Lake Hamilton 6-0 and defeated Immaculate Conception of Memphis 16-1 in the final game.
Gracey and Mallory nelson combined to pitch two games each in the one-day tournament.
Nelson earned both victories against Van Buren and Memphis I.C.
In the game against Memphis, Kanetra Pendleton scored four times, including a fifth inning home run while Nelson added three runs and Rachel Sims, Hoots and Tyeshia McDaniel each scored twice.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The East Arkansas Fellowship of Christian Athletes will sponsor an "Evening of Challenge" banquet on Tuesday, April 8, at the Forrest City Civic Center.
The banquet kicks off a nine-county campaign to establish an FCA office and staff person in this area. which will work closely with the coaches, churches, youth pastor and others to help share the FCA message.
The nine counties, comprising the East Arkansas FCA, are St. Francis, Arkansas, Crittenden, Cross, Lee, Monroe, Phillips, Prairie and Woodruff.
The keynote speaker for the evening will be NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Bart Starr, who played 16 seasons with the Green Bay Packers and is the winningest quarterback in NFL history having won five world championships in the 1960s. Starr has the highest quarterback rating in NFL playoff history.
He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977 and is also a member of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame and the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame.
Starr graduated from the University of Alabama in 1956.
More important than Starr's accomplishments on the football field is his strong Christian faith.
The "Evening of Challenge" will begin at 6:30 p.m. with a silent auction and dinner will be served at 7 p.m.
Former University of Arkansas Razorback football coach Ken Hatfield, the current head coach at Rice University, is sending a videotape presentation which will set the stage for Starr's keynote speech.
Tickets are $10 per person an are now on sale in Forrest City at Dr. Don Perkins office, Machen Ford, Freeman's, Taylor-Casbeer, Dr. Frank Schwartz and at Forrest City High School or from Dr. Dale Morris.
Starr was in Forrest City in 1999 as a guest at the annual Forrest City Grocery golf tournament.