By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
CABOT -- Last week, the Paul Hoffman Relays at Jonesboro drew 20 schools in the combined junior boys/senior boys meet.
Today's Panther Relays at Cabot will exceed that.
Cabot Athletic Director Johnny White said this morning the school is expecting "at the least 25 schools" for the senior boys/girls meet.
"And there could be more than 25," White said. "I can tell you that today's meet is probably the largest we have had in several years."
White said while he has not seen a complete list of the teams entered into today's competition, he thinks that most of the AAAAA-East schools will be competing.
The Forrest City Mustangs and Lady Mustangs will be in the mix.
The Panther Relays will start at 3:45 today with the field events. And according to White, the teams will run prelims and finals "since there are so many schools expected."
Cabot is also scheduled to host the AAAAA-East Conference Meet on Saturday, May 8.
Mustang Head Coach Clark McBride is looking forward to today's meet.
"I'm excited for the team and about the competition we will be facing," McBride said. "Especially for our sprinters and our relay teams. We should see some of the best competition at Cabot that we have seen all year. That doesn't mean the competition at the Hoffman Relays last week and the teams at Marion were weak, it just means that getting a look at some of the central Arkansas schools will tell us a lot about where this Mustang team is and where we need to be headed into the conference meet."
McBride's Mustangs ran fifth at Marion and finished ninth at the Hoffman Relays.
Sophomore sprinter Eric Walker is running among the state's best in the 400-meter run.
"Eric ran a 59.8 in the 400 at Marion and at Jonesboro he ran a 51.0," McBride said. "That has to put him in the top 10 in the state in that event."
According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Sunday, Little Rock McClellan's Mario Brister has the best 400 time so far this season at 49.37.
Walker's time would be 10th, according to that list.
Walker, who helped lead the Forrest City Junior Mustangs to the conference meet title last year as a freshman, will also compete in the 100-meter run, the long jump, in which he has consistently placed in the top five or six.
Justin Jones has placed well in the triple and long jump events this season. Walker will also run with the relay teams.
"At Cabot, it will be a tougher challenge, team-wise for us," McBride added. "It will be more like running in a state meet rather than just a regular season meet with the 20-plus teams involved. It should be a lot of fun. Hopefully, we will do well."
Jonesboro took care of its part, kept its fingers crossed and finished the regular season with a share of the AAAAA-East conference title.
The Hurricane swept a doubleheader from Mountain Home to pull even with Searcy and claim a share of the league title Monday evening at Woodland Field.
In other conference games played Monday, Cabot swept Jacksonville 13-3 and 6-3 while Forrest City and West Memphis did not play their scheduled doubleheader.
That game has been tentatively rescheduled for today at West Memphis.
Jonesboro run-ruled the Bombers in a 12-2 route in the opener, then rallied with three runs in the seventh inning and held on for a 5-4 victory in the nightcap.
The two victories, combined with Searcy's doubleheader split at Blytheville, allowed the Hurricane to move into a tie and earn a share of the AAAAA-East title with the Lions.
Both teams finished 12-2 in the league, giving Jonesboro its second straight conference title.
The Hurricane, which won the league title outright last year, will be the conference's No. 2 seed when it begins state tournament play Saturday at Benton. Searcy will be the No. 1 seed after handing Jonesboro its only AAAAA-East losses of the year.
Mountain Home and Blytheville round out the top four seeds from the East. Blytheville is making its first sttate tournament appearance since 1992.
The Class AAAAA State Tournament will be played in Benton.
Jonesboro (22-10 overall, 12-2 AAAAA-East) unloaded on Mountain Home in the first game while riding starter Jack McGrath to his eighth victory of the season.
The Hurricane roughed up the Bombers for 17 hits, led by first baseman Murray Watts, who went 4-for-4 and had five runs batted in.
Watts hit a two-run homer to left-centerfield in the fifth and the Hurricane scored six runs on six hits in the sixth to put away the Bombers.
McGrath struck out seven batters looking and nine total. McGrath allowed two earned runs on four hits and three walks over six innings to get the complete-game victory.
Mountain Home starter Zach Proctor was saddled with the loss. Proctor gave up 10 runs on 13 hits and didn't walk a batter but had his defense commit a pair of errors behind him.
The Bombers' only highlight of the first game was Kyle Coggins' one-out home run to left in the third.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
RECTOR -- Palestine-Wheatley and Hughes ended their high school softball seasons Monday at Rector.
Playing in the first round of the Class AA Region 4 tournament, the Lady Patriots lost to Bay and Hughes was shut out by Riverside.
The tournament was originally scheduled to begin Saturday but was pushed back to Monday due to locally heavy rains in the area Friday.
Bay plated 10 runs in the final inning to turn a 7-2 lead over Palestine-Wheatley into a 17-4 final.
P-W committed six errors in the inning.
"We couldn't make the play," said P-W Coach Lanny Allen. "We had our chances. We hit the ball hard and we had runners in scoring position, but we couldn't get the hit when we needed it. On defense, we made too many little errors that hurt us. There were several times we had two outs on Bay and just couldn't get the third out."
Bay's Lindsey Webb struck out five in the win. Kem Walker led the Lady Yellowjackets with four hits, followed by Lee Davis and Stephanie Smith with two each.
Brittney Gordon led P-W with two hits. P-W pitcher Amanda Hoots pitched the complete game and took the loss.
Allen figured that at least 10 of Bay's 17 runs were unearned. Hoots walked only four Bay hitters in the game.
For Hughes, the trip to the regionals capped the school's first-ever season of fast-pitch softball.
Hughes finished third at the 3AA South district tournament last week and drew No. 2 seeded Riverside.
The result was 15-0 Riverside victory.
Riverside's Sam Dunigan no-hit Hughes while striking out six in four innings.
Cross County rolled up Crowley's Ridge Academy 18-5 and Rector advanced to today's semifinals after Marked Tree opted to forfeit out of the regional.
In today's matchups, Bay takes on Rector while Riverside will battle Cross County.
The final will be played Wednesday with the champion and the runner up headed to the Class AA State Tournament at Harrison.
In other regional fast-pitch softball tournaments Monday, Valley View (23-5) beat Cave City 4-1 in the first round of the Class AAA Region 2 tournament.The Lady Blazers play rival Westside tonight at 8:30.
Pocahontas shut out Harrisburg 5-0, Heber Springs defeated Brookland 7-0 and Hoxie beat Gosnell 10-0.
At the Region 3 Class AA, Salem crushed Tuckerman 15-0 to advance.
At the Class A Region 4 tournament in Black Rock, Evening Shade, Swifton, Weiner and Armorel advanced to the semifinals of the Class A Region 4 softball tournament Monday.
The Forrest City Lady Mustangs will host West Memphis today for the final regular season fast-pitch softball game.
The varsity-junior varsity conference game is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m., at the Sports Complex.
West Memphis won the first meeting between the two teams last month.
Forrest City brings a 6-11 overall record into today's matchup and stand at 3-10 in the AAAAA-East.
Forrest City will miss the state playoffs this season, marking the third straight season the team has finished out of the playoff picture.
The second annual AAU Fireball Classic girls' basketball tournament will be held May 14-16, at P.A.R.K. in Little Rock.
The tournament will feature seven divisions beginning with 10-under and ranging through 17-under.
AAU teams, as well as school teams are encouraged to take part in the tournament.
Awards will be handed out for first and second-place teams.
The tournament entry fee is $150 per team and the deadline to enter is May 7.
*Palestine-Wheatley girls' basketball coach Lanny Allen has tentatively scheduled a team camp for June 17, 18 and 19, at Palestine-Wheatley.
The basketball camp will benefit both junior and senior high girls.
Alpha Phi Alpha will host the 18th annual benefit basketball tournament, April 30-May 1, at Salem Baptist Church in Forrest City.
All proceeds will go to the Alpha Phi Alpha Scholarship Fund. The tournament is being sponsored by III Star Agency and Jimmy Rogers.
Teams interested in participating in the tournament can call Edward Norman at 870-633-5356.
A team trophy will be awarded to the winning team and trophies will be given to the tournament's Most Valuable Players.
Registration begins at 6 p.m., Friday, April 30.