Ridger Sports | Blackhawks qualify for regional play

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

— A strong outing by Brandon Easterling on the mound paved the way for Pea Ridge to qualify for the 2010 Class 4A Baseball Regional. The ’Hawks downed Huntsville handily behind Easterling’s pitching to punch their ticket to the next level.

Last Friday’s rain out in the district quarterfinals forced the ’Hawks to play back to back games against two fresh teams on Saturday with Pea Ridge losing the second game to Prairie Grove. The ’Hawks did manage to take the No. 3 seed in the region as they will be paired with the 4A-4 district runner-up later this week in the tournament set for Harrison.

Should the ’Hawks get past their first round opponent, they will qualify for the state tournament that will be played at nearby Veteran’s Park in Rogers.

At press time, the results of the 4A-4 district was not known publicly, thetop four of which provide the competition in the north region. Shiloh, Prairie Grove, Pea Ridge and Farmington are the four local squads which qualified for the region.

Pea Ridge will play the 4A-4 runner-up at 2:30 p.m. Friday at Harrison Parks and Recreation with Berryville serving as host.

Should they win Friday, they will then play the winner of the game between top seeded Shiloh and the fourth seeded 4A-4 team at noon Saturday. The regional championship game will be at 6:30 p.m. Monday in Harrison.

Baseball ... baseball

If you are a baseball fan, and if you especially likethe teams in your locale, then 2010 has been a good year. First off, the ’Hawks have done well this spring.

The Razorbacks, even after blowing a home series to Auburn, are still good enough to be tied for first in the league’s western division. Down the highway in Springdale, the Northwest Arkansas Naturals have been winning lately and are leading their division.

While there are a lot of fans of professional baseball in the area with allegiance to a variety of teams, I would dare say that the St. Louis Cardinals is probably the most watched team.

They even have their own channel on Cox in Bentonville and Rogers. They are currently leading their division by four games and are the top rated team in the National League.

I became a Card fan in 1964 when they won the series over the Yankees. The teachers had the games on at school in the afternoon.

I listened by radio and caught some games on TV in 1967 as I was tuned into most of their games as they were champs again with Hall of Famers like Bob Gibson, Curt Flood, Roger Maris and Lou Brock. I remember watching the last game at Sportsman’s Park and the first game at Busch Stadium and, of course, now they have an even better new field.

This year’s Cards have better pitching and they have been good on offense for some time. Maybe they will return for another World Series run, having last won the thing in 2006.

Coming up football!

May is here and that means, besides all the spring sports coming into championship rounds, that spring football is here. In Arkansas, that means a two week series of practices and workouts to prepare for the 2010 fall season.

While most southernstates have allowed spring football practices for awhile, the tradition is relatively new in Arkansas.

It allows the coach the chance to try out some things, look some kids over and try to get a handle on what needs to get done by the fall. Second-year coach Tony Travis is looking for a few more good men to join the squad.

Travis inherited a 1-9 team from 2008, and improved it to 2-8 last season.

This year’s team might have to rely on lots of youth to fill the slots, but the numbers are up and the enthusiasm is as well.

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John McGee is the art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, coaches elementary track and writes a regular sports column for The TIMES. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].

The opinions of the writer are his own and not necessarily those of The TIMES.

Sports, Pages 10 on 05/05/2010