PEA RIDGE — The Pea Ridge Blackhawk baseball team upset Booneville in the opening round of regional competition to qualify for the 4A State Tournament set to begin Friday in Berryville.
After the third-seeded ‘Hawksdispatched second-seeded Booneville 10-0, they were beaten by Shiloh in the region semi-finals but captured the third place playoff by besting Gentry 2-1 Monday.
The 1-4A District flexed theirmuscles when were paired up against the four regional qualifiers from the 4-4A. The 1-4A squads swept all four contests to claim all the semi-final berths. In the first round along with the Pea Ridge upset of Booneville, Shilohbeat Dover 10-6, Prairie Grove defeated Pottsville 10-6, and the number four-seeded Gentry Pioneers shocked top-seeded Clarksville 7-4.
Gentry lost to Prairie Grove 13-3 in the other semi-final matchup to draw the 3rd place game with Pea Ridge. Both Pea Ridge and Gentry will be assigned to the upper half of the bracket at the state tournament.
The ‘Hawks will play at noon Thursday against the third-seeded team from the South Regional. The team will most likely be Dumas or Nashville, but no information was available at press time to be certain of the first round team.
Should the ’Hawks prevail in the opening round, they will take on the Green County Tech boys, the winners of the East Regional at noon. If the ’Hawks are still alive on Saturday, they could very well be taking on Pulaski Academy of Little Rock, again at noon.
Gentry drew the thirdseed from the East Region in Nettleton and should the Pioneers score an upset, they will take on Pulaski in the next round. From there, the winner will take on the bracket winner from Pea Ridge’s lineup. The final winner of all those gameswill then be qualified to play in the 4A State Championship game to be held May 19 in Fayetteville at Razorback Field.
Pujols finally homers
The L.A. fans had begun to boo high-priced newcomer Albert Pujols as his batting average sank to .192 and after he had failed to hit a single home run in his first 110 at bats. Last Saturday, he was benched by the Angels coach to give him some rest and respite from the pressure that has built up on the hulking first baseman.
Pujols spurned his longtime team in the St. Louis Cardinals to sign with the Angels for more than $250 million dollars over a 10-year period. A whole pile of money for a a single player, but perhaps not so much if said player could take their team to the World Series.
As a matter of fact, I have been monitoring what was being said on the Angels team web site as well as some ancillary sites, and it was obvious that the Angel fans were almost deliriouswith joy. The sports odds makers were giving the Angels as having the secondbest chance at making the World Series this year.
There were even arguments, pro and con, about which uniform Pujols would take to the Hall of Fame, when he would be inducted sometime after 2022. It was reasoned that Pujols would be breaking all kinds of baseball records (most home runs ever, most hits ever, most bases ever) during his 10-year hitch as an Angel.
The angst over which uniform Pujols would wear to the Hall of Fame was due to the fact that there are currently no Hall of Fame players in the Hall that wear the Angels uniform.
They assumed that their newly-acquired superstar would keep on producing for the next 10 years, like he was producing for St. Louis the last 10 years.
Then, reality set in after the expensive player has helped drag his team into the cellar of the western division. Ranked second in the major leagues just over a month ago, the Angels are now the No. 26-ranked team.
Well, Sunday, Pujols finally homered to help win the game, although he did fail to get a hit in the three other at-bats he had as well as having a rare error in the field. Pujols was a Golden Glove fielder with St. Louis.
The year 2011 was an off year for Pujols, although his numbers were good. He had a long slow stretch at the beginning but it wasn’t as bad as the one he suffered through this season.
Being a clean player and not likely to turn to illegal drugs to improve his game, he may not be around long enough to complete his 10-year contract.
Things have worked out well for St. Louis as Pujols departure left the Cards with a lot more money to acquire some younger players. The several new faces in St. Louis have had a big part in keeping the Cards on top of the NL Central.
As a matter of fact, they are perhaps one of the best, if not the best, teams ever coming off a World Series championship.
It’s hard to stay on top in the sporting world. Winners tend to get complacent until they are taken down by teams with more hunger and desire. If the Cards make it back to the World Series, it might be in no small measure due to the absence of their old hero.
Still, I appreciate all the good times that Pujols gave Cardinals these past several years. Before my father passed away,we watch some Cardinal games together and Pujols was the star of most of them. My dad didn’t care much for sports but he did like watching the Cardinals and I have been a Card fan since I was 8 years old.
Watching them win the World Series in ’64 then coming back three years later to go again with a new team was something I’ll never forget.
I hope the former St.
Louis star can get his mojo back, but with all his problems with his new teams, I think it has helped his old fans put things in the past.
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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 prtnews@ nwaonline.com.
Sports, Pages 9 on 05/09/2012