By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
It's been a while since the Forrest City Lady Mustangs have scored a run.
On Monday, the Mountain Home Lady Bombers rolled into the Sports Complex and shut out the Lady Mustangs twice in a conference doubleheader.
Mountain Home won 5-0 and 10-0. Those two shut out losses, combined with Forrest City's 15-0 loss to Cabot prior to Spring Break, leaves the Lady Mustangs scoreless for the past three games.
Forrest City will host Jacksonville today in a varsity conference doubleheader, beginning at 4 p.m.
"We've had the runners on base, especially Monday in the first game against Mountain Home," said Forrest City Coach Pam England. "We just haven't been able to get the hit or lay down a successful bunt when we needed too."
At Cabot it was a first-inning "mental break down" that allowed the Lady Panthers to take an early 8-0 lead.
Monday, Mountain Home got two runs in the top of the first inning but did not get another run until the fifth inning, making it 3-0. The Lady Bombers added the final two runs in the seventh inning.
"We kept it a 2-0 for a while," England said, "And we should have scored."
Mountain Home pitcher A.J. Friend pitched the complete-game shutout, striking out 12 Lady Mustang batters.
The Lady Mustangs left two on base in the first inning, two in the second, two in the fourth and one in the fifth.
Forrest City pitcher Stacy Gracey took the loss, pitching the complete game. Rachael Sims, the team's leading hitter, was hitless in the first game.
Mallory Nelson started the second game for Forrest City but lasted only an inning and a half giving way to Gracey who finished.
Nelson has been trying to work her way back to full strength after recent surgery on both hands.
Friend pitched two innings in the second game -- striking out two -- but yielded to Danielle Bennett, who struck out two in three innings for the win.
Looking for a quick fix remedy for the team's lack of scoring, England changed the order of the line up for Monday's second game.
"We left way too many runners on base so I just thought a change might help wake us up," England said.
Still, Gracey, Sims and Holly Simon were the only Forrest City players to collect a hit as the Lady Bombers scored twice in the first inning and added six runs in the second to lead 8-0. Two final runs in the fourth made the 10-0 final.
"We are still trying to learn the art of bunting," England said, "And I'm sure the girls are still trying to get used to my way of coaching. But the girls are working hard and they are improving. I'm asking them to do some things they haven't been asked to do before."
Mountain Home improves to 6-7 overall for the season and 2-2 in the AAAAA-East while Forrest City falls to 2-4 overall and 2-3 in the conference.
"Even though several of the girls have been playing for a while, this is still a young team, especially in the experience level," England said. "We only have one senior on the team plus we took most of last week off for spring break and practiced Friday and Saturday."
Paragould 5, B. Southside 1
Paragould scored twice in the fifth and sixth innings to pull away from Batesville Southside for a 5-1 victory Monday evening in high school softball.
Rivercrest 11, Piggott 3
Mallory Wilson went 2-for-3 with an RBI and pitched a complete game, grabbing the win in Rivercrest's 11-3 victory over Piggott in high school softball Monday.
Rivercrest improves to 9-3 and 1-1 in the 3AAA-South, while Piggott dropped to 1-13.
The Forrest City Mustangs will attempt to end a four-game slide today when they travel to Cabot for a varsity conference doubleheader.
The Mustangs are 2-5 overall and 0-4 in the AAAAA-East Conference.
Today's scheduled twinbill starts at 4:30 p.m. The Mustangs will play at Brinkley on Friday.
Also on tap today, the Palestine-Wheatley Patriots are still seaching for their first win of the year and will try to get that victory when they travel to McCrory.
In local prep baseball games played Monday The Calvary Christian Eagles split a doubleheader against Pulaski Homeschool, winning the first game 6-4 and losing the nightcap 3-2. Calvary stands at 1-3 for the year.
Also Monday, Brayden Malone smacked a two-run home run and Jeffery Thompson singled in the go-ahead run as Marked Tree edged Riverside 9-8 in five innings to gain a doubleheader split Monday in high school baseball.
Riverside won the first game 2-1 as Matt Owens allowed one run on four hits and Michael DeWitt scored the game-winner on a squeeze bunt.
Manila 16, Cross County 10
Josh McDaniel hit a solo home run in the third inning as Manila defeated Cross County 16-10 Monday in high school baseball.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Forrest City Travelers and the Arkansas Concrete youth traveling baseball teams each participated in the Coca Cola Early Bird USSSA NIT last weekend at Southaven, Miss.
The Travelers, playing as 11-year-olds in the USSSA World Series Qualifying tournament, finished 0-3 in pool play, losing to the Georgia Giants (McDonough, Ga.) 9-1 on Friday and then suffering a 9-7 loss to the Germantown (Tenn.) Giants and a 13-5 loss to Goose's Gamers of Collierville, Tenn. on Saturday.
The DC Elite team of Southaven defeated the Georgia Giants in the tournament's championship game, 8-6.
The Travelers will play in the Superpretzel Shootout this weekend at Southaven.
Arkansas Concrete, playing in the 13-year-old age group at the Early Bird NIT, also finished 0-3, losing to the Tennessee Giants 10-4, the Central Arkansas Trailblazers (Benton) 9-1 and the SEMO Cherokees (Jackson, Mo.) 8-2.
The Germantown Giants defeated SEMO in the championship game, 10-1.
Arkansas Concrete, comprised of players from Forrest City and Wynne, will next play in the Snowden Grove Challenge Cup, April 16-18, at Southaven.