By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
When Forrest City Coach Pam England inserted Rudy Stewart into the Lady Mustang lineup in the bottom of the sixth inning Tuesday, the two had no idea what the move would eventually mean to the team.
Playing their second game in as many days, the Lady Mustang fast-pitch softball team hosted Searcy at the Sports Complex in AAAAA-East Conference action..
And it was Stewart who would help give the Lady Mustangs a 6-5 win over the Lady Lions in nine innings.
After falling behind 5-3 to the Lady Lions, Forrest City plated two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to force a 5-5 tie. For the next two and a half innings, each team turned up the defense.
Headed into the bottom of the ninth, it was still a tie game.
Using the new International Tie Breaker rule, put into effect last season, the Lady Mustangs put Stewart on second base to start the last of the ninth.
Holly Simon laid down a bunt single which moved Stewart to third base. Leigh Anna Taylor's slow roller back toward the mound was mishandled by pitcher Taylor Dillion as Stewart evaded the tag attempt and scored the game-winning run using an effective, but unorthodox slide.
Stewart celebrated on top of home plate for several seconds as her teammates rushed to meet her.
The victory leaves the Lady Mustangs at 2-0 overall and 2-0 in the conference. The 2-0 start is the best beginning for Forrest City since 1997, when the Lady Mustangs opened 3-0.
The team will host Brinkley today at 5 p.m. Thursday's conference game at Jonesboro has been cancelled and will be rescheduled.
Stacey Gracey picked up the win, after replacing starting pitcher Mallory Nelson in the top of the third inning. Gracey, who pitched the JV Lady Mustangs to an 11-3 win Monday over Blytheville, gave up just one run in seven innings and allowed just one hit and four walks while striking out 10 Searcy hitters.
Nelson, who went seven full innings Monday in the varsity win over Blytheville, worked the first two innings against Searcy, giving up four runs on five hits and two walks while striking out five.
Searcy, 0-2 after an opening season loss to Wynne, fell behind 1-0 when Simon scored on a ground out in the first.
Searcy rallied to take a 4-1 lead in the second inning when Krystle Curtis, Tiffany Shroud, Shonda Rushin and Autumn Inman each scored.
Chari Agnew scored for Forrest City in the bottom of the second to cut Searcy's lead to 4-2 and Gracey walked and scored in the bottom of the third to get within 5-3.
The Lady Mustangs forced the 5-5 tie in the fifth when Simon walked to start the inning and went to second base using a passed ball. Taylor's single scored Simon and left Taylro standing at third after two Searcy overthrows. With one out, Rachel Sims' RBI triple to center field scored Taylor leaving the game knotted at 5-all.
Searcy had only four base runners over the next four innings as Gracey pitched almost flawless softball and the Lady Mustang defense shined.
Forrest City had a chance to get the winning run home in the bottom of the seventh when Sims walked and went to third on a passed ball and an overthrow. Rishonda Dean's bunt single was perfect but didn't travel; far enough to score Sims who was picked off third base by Searcy catcher Shelley Verhoeven.
Nelson led off the Forrest City eighth with a single that was deflected off the glove of Dillion but a Searcy double play ended that threat.
Simon led Forrest City by scoring twice while Taylor, Gracey, Agnew and Stewart each scored one run.
The Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots opened their 2004 fast-pitch season Tuesday suffering a 12-0 five-inning loss to DeWitt.
"DeWitt is a good team," said P-W Coach Lanny Allen. "They hit the ball and we didn't."
Slightly. The Lady Patriots had just one hit -- by Kara Siler -- in the five innings.
Allen opened the year trying to plug four major positions this year -- pitcher, catcher, shortstop and second base -- vacancies all created due to graduation.
"You can add one outfield slot to that as well," Allen said. "I had to move Fallon Parker to pitcher this year."
This is the first season for Parker to pitch for the Lady Patriots.
The Lady Patriots do not play again until March 23.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Chad Doyle got his first start of the season Tuesday for the Forrest City Mustang baseball team and got plenty of support from his teammates in a 15-4 win over Osceola in five innings.
Doyle, a 6-2 185-pound freshman right-hander, went the distance, giving up Osceola's four runs on three hits. Doyle had six strikeouts along the way.
The Mustangs are off to a 2-1 start, equalling the best start for a Forrest City baseball team since the 1999 season, which also produced a 2-1 start.
Preston Echols led the offensive production with two hits in five at-bats, including a fifth-inning grand slam home run. Echols scored twice and had five RBIs.
David Machen went 2-for-4 and scored three runs while Terrance Ware scored three times and drove in a pair of runs. Kevin Padilla scored twice with one RBI and Casiday Hankins scored a single run with one RBI.
Forrest City took a 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning when Ware, Machen and Echols each got on base and scored. Hankins followed with a one-out single and scored on an Osceola error.
Machen added a single run in the second to push the Forrest City lead to 5-0.
The Mustangs closed out the scoring and the game with a 10-run fifth inning in which the team sent 14 hittters to the plate.
Osceola scored all four runs in the bottom of the fifth.
Echols' grand slam came after Padilla singled, Ware walked and Machen singled to load the bases.
Ware and Padilla each scored twice in the big inning.
As a team, the Mustangs pounded out nine hits and drew 11 walks off Osceola pitching.
The Mustangs will not play again until Tuesday, March 16, when they travel to Jonesboro.
Today's junior varsity game against Marion and Friday's junior varsity game against Barton has been cancelled.
*The Palestine-Wheatley Patriots opened the season Tuesday by hosting Clarendon but as of press time, there were no reports regarding the final score.
The Patriots will host Barton Thursday, beginning at 4 p.m.
*In other high school baseball games played Tuesday, Abundant Life School defeated Blytheville 12-1 and North Little Rock held off Conway 1-0.
Bauxite defeated Sheridan's JV 8-6 and Fayetteville downed Bentonville 3-2.
In about a 50-mile radius in Northeast Arkansas sit three of the top four teams in Class AAA -- all from the same conference.
Saturday's Class AAA boys basketball semifinals at Ozark High School featured three 3AAA-South conference teams -- Mississippi County's Gosnell and Osceola and East Poinsett County, which is located in Lepanto.
In one semifinal, Osceola and Gosnell squared off for the fifth time this year, keeping the tradition of a Mississippi County school in a state championship game.
Osceola was the latest county school to play for the state's highest honor, trimming Gosnell's season series advantage to 3-2 with a 78-67 win, obviously the biggest of the year .
Rivercrest has been to the last two Class AAA state football championship games.
Just two years ago, Osceola won its second straight Class AAAA state boys basketball championship -- the last game before it dropped to Class AAA.
EPC, just a hop, skip and a jump from Osceola on the Poinsett County line, has also represented Northeast Arkansas well.
The Warriors, behind University of Arkansas signee Marcus Monk, beat Pulaski Academy 52-31 in the other semifinal.
EPC, perfect in Arkansas, moved to 34-1 on the season and set up an all-3AAA-South conference state final.
The state tournament has solidified the claim that the 3AAA-South conference is the best in AAA.
Making up three-fourths of the Final Four is astonishing, especially in Class AAA. Two conference teams in the state title game isn't bad either.
Unlike AAAAA and AAAA, which send four teams from each of the four conferences to the state tournament, Class AAA, AA and A use regional tournaments to select the top 16 teams that will vie for the state crown.
The top four teams from the district tournament (really a conference tournament) play the top four teams from two other district tournaments.
The top four in the 3AAA-South district tournament played the top four in the 2AAA and 3AAA-North districts.
EPC, Gosnell and Osceola were the first, second and fourth seeds respectively from Region 2.
Two state tournament wins by each team later, they found themselves in Saturday's semifinals.
With all the games they had to win to get there, they've made the conference look like the most competitive in any classification.
Rivercrest, Manila, Harrisburg, Valley View and Trumann now have to feel better about themselves after finishing behind EPC, Gosnell and Osceola in the conference regular-season standings.
Rivercrest, which finished fourth in the standings, was the only team to beat one of the top three -- second-place Gosnell, 57-53 on Dec. 18.
Gosnell's only other two conference losses came to EPC, which finished a perfect 14-0 in the conference.
Going into Saturday's game with the Seminoles, the Pirates (26-9) had only lost to three teams from their classification -- EPC (three times), Osceola (twice) and Rivercrest.
The other losses were to Class AA power BIC, Class AAAAA state tournament participant Jonesboro and Class AAAA Greene County Tech.
That, in itself, is a good year.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The registration process for the 2004 Forrest City Recreation Department's adult men's and women's slow-pitch softball program continues.
But according to program director Kenneth Taylor, the women's program is still in need of players.
One of the major changes to the men's slow-pitch league this season will be allowing base runners to steal bases. Runners will be able to steal after the pitch crosses home plate.
Additionally, the youth baseball and softball registration process continues through March 15.
Registration for the adult men's and women's softball leagues began March 1.
The youth baseball and softball fees are $15 for each child living in the Forrest City city limits and $25 for each child outside the city limits.
For more information about either of the leagues, call Taylor at 633-3667.
by Walter Scott
Each spring, my wife has a cleaning attack. She cleans everything,.
Far and wide, high and low, whether it needs it or not, nothing is safe when the cleaning bug gets hold of my wife.
This means I must spend great amounts of my time protecting all of my valuables -- those things which she feels are unnecessarily taking up space.
There are some things that I have which are easy to justify.
For example, the turkey decoy that has been resting in the top of the closet -- unused for almost a year -- needs to be there.
It is only used once each year, for turkey season. But when not in use, I like it to be in the closet.
I have more difficulty hanging on to other prized possessions. The hunting hat on top of the gun case that has not moved for three years is a prime example. I now have a new hunting hat, but the old one is the one I was wearing when I shot the big buck with my bow.
It has sentimental value and a person can never tell when a friend might show up and need to borrow a hat.
I find that most women, including my wife, are not too practical or sentimental when it comes to 21-year-old hats or 21-year-old whatevers.
I have an extra pair of boots in the closet. The boots do not leak too badly, and are perfectly fine on a dry day unless, of course, ther is the occasional creek that needs crossing.
They should be saved in case of an emergency. I am not sure what that emergency might be, but one can never be too prepared.
I knew I was fighting a losing battle in the cleaning frenzy and figured I might as well go outside and do some spring cleaning of my own.
This is the time of year a person needs to clean the blue bird houses. Blue birds will be returning shortly on their first scouting run for nesting sites. Clean houses in position will increase the odds of getting a pair of the pretty little birds to move in.
This is also a good time to make a few more houses. If you do not have the skills or inclination to build a blue bird house, they can be purchased from the local hardware store.
Some boy scout troops will build houses as a fund raiser. Purchasing a few of these will help out the birds and the kids.
The houses should be placed away from homes and out buildings, which will help to discourage sparrows. When the first hatch has left the nest, clean your houses again.
This will encourage re-nesting, sometimes up to three or four times in a summer. They will provide hours of entertainment as well as a bit of color in the area.
Goose nests and wood duck houses should also be cleaned and made ready for the anticipated early arrival of waterfowl.
Food plots for wildlife can also be planted at this time of year. If the ground was burned off or torn up last fall, a frost seeding can be very successful.
Seed can be broadcast on snow or bare ground and the spring rains will do the planting.
I have just such an area on the edge of a timber line where I replaced a fence last fall.
With a clear path extending into the trees, a perfect food plot can be developed.
I spread a mixture of clover seeds directly onto the snow and follow with a layer of oats.
Turkeys will scratch around eating some of the oats, but in the process, plant the clover and remaining oats.
The oats will sprout early, in turn providing an early spring meal for deer, turkey, and song birds as well as a cover crop for the clover.
By next fall, the clover will be a valuable food source for much of the wildlife getting ready for winter.
I think I have enough spring cleaning to keep me busy and out of my wife's way. And if not, I can always generate more.
I'm positive that both she and the wildlife will appreciate my efforts to get outside for some constructive projects of my own.