PEA RIDGE — The Blackhawk diamond men whipped Huntsville last week to qualify for the 2010 State 4A Baseball Tournament after action in the regional baseball playoffs in Harrison.

The ’Hawks played Prairie Grove last night at Harrison for third place in the region after Pea Ridge and their opponent Prairie Grove lost their semifinal games to Shiloh and Farmington, respectively.

The state tourney will be extremely fan friendly for the ’Hawk fans as it is to be played at Rogers Veteran’s Park beginning May 14. The first three rounds will be played there with the final to be played out at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville.

Baum is considered by some as the finest collegiate facility in the nation. Arkansas has boasted the second largest attendance figures in the country for the past few years and the quality of the park there has a lot to do with it.

If Pea Ridge got past Prairie Grove last night, then they will open play this Friday at 2:30 p.m. against the No. 4 seed from the South Region. That will either be DeQueen (No. 12 state ranking) or Arkadelphia (No. 4 state ranking). Arkadelphia was the No. 2 seed in their region before being upset by Nashville.

If the ’Hawks lost last night to the Tigers, they will play this Friday at noon against either Stuttgart (No. 3 state ranking) or Valley View (No. 1 state ranking), which ever one lost in the championship game in their region. Valley View was a top seed in the tourney with Stuttgart upsetting Heber Springs’ top-seeded team in the semifinals.

If Pea Ridge wins Friday, they will play in the quarterfinals against the winner of either the east regional or the south regional. The south region finalists were Malvern (No. 9 state ranking) and Nashville (No. 8 state ranking) with Stuttgart and Valley View faced off in the east. That game will either be noon or 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

Semi-final games will be Monday evening with the championship game in Fayetteville Saturday at 3 p.m.

Pea Ridge holds No. 17 state ranking

The ’Hawks hold the No.

17 state ranking which is fourth in the tough 4A-1 District. The district flexed its muscles in the region last week at the 4A-1 teams eliminated the entire slate of 4A-4 squads in the first round of competition, a feat rarely achieved. That mean that the fourth place team from the league whipped the champion from the other conference.

The state rankings for our district members are:

District State Team

1st 2nd Shiloh

2nd 7th Farmington

3rd 10th Prairie Grove

4th 17th Pea Ridge

5th 25th Gentry

6th 27th Huntsville

7th 32nd Gravette

8th 44th Berryville

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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].

Sports, Pages 11 on 05/12/2010