'Taaaake' me out to the ball game

Or maybe you ought to take yourself out to the ballgame, or ball games as both diamond athlete teams are making waves in 4A state rankings this spring.

Both boys and girls teams were ranked second in the state with the release of last Friday's MaxPreps/CBS high school baseball/softball polls. I would daresay that this is the first time in history that both teams held such a lofty ranking at the same time. Their rankings might take a dip after both teams lost late Saturday in a very busy week for Pea Ridge. The teams got in six games each in a week that tested their stamina and depth, an exercise that will serve them well when they get to playoff competition at the end of this month.

The boys had a big game at home two days ago against defending state champion Shiloh (after The TIMES deadline). The decision broke the current 4-0 tie both teams had forged atop the 3A-4A-1 Conference standings. Tuesday the 'Hawks took on Gentry and then they will be home Thursday against Green Forest. They will finish off the week with a road game at Elkins Friday. The 'Hawks loss last week came against Clinton in the final game of the Harrison tournament. They beat Greenland and Lead Hill prior to that game.

The girls won the first 14 games of their season before losing to Concord in the finals of a tournament Saturday night. The girls won't be home for awhile as they are on the road for four straight games. They were to play Prairie Grove Monday and West Fork Tuesday, and then are to be going to Green Forest Friday. They remain on the road next Monday against Gentry before coming home Tuesday to host Gravette.

Come on out when you get the chance. This has been a golden year for Pea Ridge athletics but the year is rapidly coming to a close.

The game of baseball

Baseball is the third sport that MaxPreps keeps track of with polls. It is also one of the three sports that have a playoff system that takes place over several days and weeks.

Baseball is the first team sport to take hold in America, having been invented here in the 1800s. It is perhaps the most American of sports and is certainly the most patriotic of the professional leagues. The protests, demonstrations and "statements" that football players seem to be enamored with has actually been a big factor in the decline in the television ratings for NFL games. On the other hand, those kinds of things are unheard of in Major League Baseball and their ratings and popularity have been on the rise.

While football teams place great importance on having a good quarterback, and basketball teams have to have a good point guard to ultimately be successful, baseball teams have to have several pitchers on their roster if they wish to be competitive.

You have to score to win, and as Wee Willie Keeler advised other batters in the 1890s "ya gotta hit 'em where they ain't." Keeler was a small man, 5'4", 140 lbs., and swung a heavy (46 oz.) albeit short bat (30") but he was terrific at hitting baseballs where fielders weren't. He used a bat like a ping pong paddle and he held the Major League single season record for singles (206) for more than 100 years. Current player Ichiro Suzuki finally beat that mark a few years ago.

Pitching has evolved a lot over the past 50 years, and just this season the Arkansas Activities Association has instituted a pitch count rule for high school baseball. In former times, to prevent a pitcher from being over worked, teams limited innings a player could pitch over an amount of time. The problem with that is that some times, like Blaine Knight did in the Arkansas/Alabama game last Friday, a pitcher can get through a lot of innings with very few pitches. Knight had around 50 in the fifth inning, whereas the 'Bama pitcher threw more than 50 in the first three innings.

Anybody throwing more than 100-110 pitches in one day runs the risk of fiber damage to their arm. There have been athletes who could throw a whale of a lot of innings but there were others who were over pitched and were shortly thereafter unable to throw as they could before.

Under Arkansas' new rule, pitchers who throw less than 30 pitches can pitch every day. More than 30 but less than 60 will require a day between appearances, and throwing up to 85 will require a two-day rest. Throwing more than 85 pitches will require a three-day rest. Any team caught breaking this rule will have to forfeit the victory if they win and pay a fine.

Pro pitchers usually sit down when they exceed 100 and they normally rest for four to five days. College pitchers who hit the 100 pitch mark will usually pitch once a week.

While all the players contribute to team success, if a team has a pitcher who is on and having a terrific day, it makes it much easier to notch a victory. Teams who have good offensive numbers can win on offense alone, but some days you better have a good pitcher if you are facing a formidable opponent. Arkansas had a great performance from their pitcher in the Alabama series opener and they clobbered the Crimson Tide. The situation reversed itself Saturday and the Tide trounced the Hogs. Then Sunday, the Hogs had a little bit better pitching and they won in the top of the ninth.

Baseball is a lot like chess, with the manager/coach making moves with where players are positioned, how to run bases, how to pitch to certain batters and how to execute offensive plays involving multiple players. A suicide squeeze like the one the 'Hawks used to best Booneville recently is a great example of a baseball gamble. In this play, the runner from third comes tearing for home on the pitch with the batter supposed to bunt the ball just enough away to allow the runner from third to score before the defensive team can react. If the batter misses the bunt, the catcher has the ball and the runner is dead, the "suicide" part of the play.

Hogs erasing memories of 2016

The Razorback baseball team took two of three from Alabama in Tuscaloosa Saturday to capture their third straight SEC series and hang on to a share of the divisional lead. They are tied 7-2 with Auburn with 21 conference games left on the schedule.

Arkansas had their worst season in decades last year, getting swept by Texas A&M in the last three games of the season to have their year terminated early. The Hogs opened the 2017 conference season by sweeping A&M to return the favor, Texas A&M has won the last six games after getting swept by Arkansas.

This week, Arkansas is hosting their main rival in Louisiana State, or LSU. The series will be played Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

LSU, for the past several years, has boasted the largest attendance figures of any college baseball team in America. Right behind by a few hundred per game are the Arkansas Razorbacks.

College baseball isn't all that popular as far as paid admissions go. One of the chief reasons that the Hogs recruit as well as they do is that players love to have an audience.

A few years ago, Arkansas played at home over two years with the University of California. The Hogs averaged 10,000 spectators per game in Fayetteville but the highest attended game out in Berkeley was 500 people. When players see that, they think a lot about playing for the University of Arkansas.

State 4A MaxPreps

Baseball poll

As of March 31, 2017

including all 4A-1 teams

1. Ashdown 12-2

3. Pea Ridge 11-2

3. Huntsville 12-2

4. Robinson 14-3

5. Monticello 12-7

6. Booneville 12-4

7. Hamburg 11-2

8. Shiloh 10-3

9. Central Arkansas 9-5

10. Dover 8-4

16. Prairie Grove 7-6

19. Berryville 7-4

35. Gravette 3-7

40. Gentry 1-6

41. Lincoln 4-13

4A North Region Poll

1. Pea Ridge 11-2

2. Huntsville 12-2

3. Booneville 12-4

4. Shiloh 10-3

5. Dover 8-4

6. Pottsville 10-4

7. Prairie Grove 7-6

8. Ozark 11-2

9. Berryville 7-4

10. West Fork 6-5

3A-4A-1 Conference standings

1. Pea Ridge 4-0

2. Shiloh 4-0

3. Prairie Grove 4-2

4. Greenland 3-2

5. Gravette 2-4

6. West Fork 1-3

7. Elkins 1-3

8. Gentry 1-4

9. Lincoln 0-3

MaxPreps state 4A

Softball poll

As of March 31

including all 4A-1 teams

1. Bauxite 14-0

2. Pea Ridge 12-0

3. Pottsville 10-1

4. Heber Springs 9-3

5. Malvern 9-3

6. Monticello 10-3

7. Gravette 8-6

8. Stuttgart 14-3

9. Booneville 7-2

10. Nashville 7-5

14. Prairie Grove 14-3

23. Lincoln 6-7

33. Gentry 4-7

34. Berryville 6-6

4A North Region poll

1. Pea Ridge 12-0

2. Pottsville 10-1

3. Gravette 8-6

4. Booneville 7-2

5. Prairie Grove 11-3

6. Dardanelle 8-5

7. Ozark 7-6

8. Lincoln 6-7

9. Gentry 4-7

10. Berryville 6-6

3A-4A-1 Conference

1. Pea Ridge 6-0

2. Gravette 5-1

3. Prairie Grove 5-2

4. Elkins 3-3

5. West Fork 2-3

6. Lincoln 1-5

7. Greenland 0-5

Gentry 0-5

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Editor's note: John McGee, an award-winning columnist, sports writer and art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, writes a regular sports column for The Times. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].

Sports on 04/05/2017