The 4A-1 conference race took a weird turn with Gravette playing Santa Claus to Farmington last week.
In a game that was otherwise dominated by league leader Gravette, Farmington upset the Lions when they were on the receiving end of six turnovers. Gravette’s mix of interceptions and fumbles led to a 20-13 win by the Cards which led to a logjam atop the 4A-1 standings.
The loss dropped the Lions into a five-way tie for first place among Gravette, Ozark, Farmington, Prairie Grove and Shiloh. All five schools sport a 3-1 league mark with three games left in the season. The ’Hawks currently own sixth with a 1-3 mark while Gentry and Berryville remained tied for last with 0-4 records.
After this week’s games, at least two of the five teams will drop out of first place as four of the five are playing each other. Ozark will travel to Farmington with Gravette traveling to Shiloh in the battle of league leaders.
Should Ozark fail to emulate Gravette’s generosity to Farmington, I believe the Hillbillies will get past the Cardinals comfortably.
While the Billies lost to Gravette by 7 when the Cards beat Gravette by 7, Ozark got no help from the Lions in their loss.
Gravette will be pumped going to Shiloh. Shiloh has been the only thing keeping the Lions from having a string of league titles and I think Gravette will be motivated on a lot of levels to have their best game of the season. Go Lions!
In ther battle of basement dwellers, the Pioneers should come out on top of the Bobcats, a team that may be having one of their worst seasons on record. The loser getstheir fifth loss, which mathematically eliminates them from any playoff potential.
The ’Hawks need to win this week to avoid their fourth loss.
In an eight-team league, usually only the top four squads make it to the playoffs. A four-loss season would make it next to impossible to qualify and it would be possible then and only then in case a number of teams finished 3-4. With five schools at 3-1, the odds of that scenario is very unlikely.
If the ’Hawks can regroup and defeat the Tigers, they then catch their last two foes at home to end the season. They play host to the Cardinals on the last Friday in October and then finish the regular season hosting Berryville.
It looks like Gravette will likely win the league title with Shiloh likely having to beat Farmington in the season finale to qualify for the playoffs. Ozark should win out like Gravette but would get the second seed due to their loss to Gravette.
If Farmington loses to Ozark thisweek then loses to Pea Ridge the following week, that would put the ’Hawks in line for a possible state berth - IF - the ’Hawks can beat the Tigers this week.
Pea Ridge is still in the mix for a playoff berth though there is not room for mistakes or bad luck.
Unlikely Cardinals in World Series
In a finishing touch on a most unlikely September and October, the St. Louis Cardinals won the National League playoffs and landed a spot in the 2011 World Series.
2011 was for a long time, a year which Card fans like myself were just hoping the team would not sink to last place. After losing their ace pitcher, Adam Wainwright, to a season-ending injury before the season began and with losing future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols to injuries early in the season, the Cardinals were sinking in the Central Division standings. In fact, they were a whopping 10 1/2 games behind a playoff berth at the end of August with some newspapersposting their elimination number, something akin to watching the fat lady get ready to sing.
In a most unlikely finish, the Cards got red hot and lost very few games down the stretch and bumped the Atlanta Braves out of the playoffs on the final game of the season. Folks felt sorry for them as they had to play Major League Baseball’s best team in the Philadelphia Phiillies in the first round.
However, the Cards took the series 3-2 winning 1-0 in the final game at Philadelphia.
They took on Milwaukee in the National League Championship game, a team that had the best home game record in the majors.
The Cards took two of three from Milwaukee in their home stand and then they whipped the Brewers 2 games to 1 in the Milwaukee games to earn their 19th World Series appearance. They are now tied for the second most World Series appearances with 19 trips, with the NewYork Yankees having the most appearances with 40.
While not my favorite sport, I do enjoy baseball and I like the fact that its the kind of sport where teams can come from way down, or way back and make things happen. If I had bet a Vegas line for the Cardinals to play in the World Series back in August, I could have won a boat load of money.
◊◊◊
Editor’s note: 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 are not necessarily those of The Times.
Sports, Pages 9 on 10/18/2011