Palestine-Wheatley teams looking to secure spots in postseason play
Both PW teams secured season victories Friday winning conference baseball and softball games.
The Patriots nailed down an 11-1 mercy rule win over England Friday to keep them in third place in the conference standings behind McCrory, Carlisle and Barton.
The Patriots, 8-5 overall and 4-3 in the conference have four conference games remaining on their regular season schedule.
The Lady Patriots used all seven innings of their game Friday to get past England 3-2.
P-W has five regulars season games remaining, four of those conference dates against McCrory, Carlisle, Hazen and Des Arc, three of the four being home games for the Patriots.
The Patriots, with Friday's win over England remain in second place in the conference, one game behind McCrory.
Starting the current season, the Patriots opened with five consecutive victories before dropping a pair of nonconference tournament games and then rebounding to win four of their last six games.
Most of the Patriots final push for a return to postseason play includes hosting the state tournament. The Patriots finished second last year in the state finals losing to Woodlawn.
On the softball side of the season, the Lady Patriots opened with six consecutive victories, before dropping three of their next four midseason outings and now returning to complete their final four scheduled games, McCrory, Carlisle, Barton and Des Arc.
Headed into next week's schedule, the Lady Patriots are in third place in the conference standings behind Carlisle and Des Arc.
••••• Brookland completed a perfect run through the 4A-3 conference regular-season slate Thursday by routing Forrest City 24-0 in high school baseball.
The Bearcats (16-7, 8-0 conference) scored 21 runs in the first inning. They will be the No. 1 seed in the district tournament later this month at Westside.
Colton Rusco was 4-for-4 with an inside-the-park home run, two doubles and six runs batted in for Brookland. Griffin Duvall was 2-for-2 with an inside-thepark home run and two RBIs.
Jaxson Findley was 2-for-2 with a double and two RBIs; Elijah Snearly was 2-for-2 with a double and an RBI; Max Davis was 2-for-2 with a double and an
RBI; and Logan Parish was 2-for4 with a double and two RBIs.
Gabe Carter doubled and drove in four runs. Blake Lane belted a triple and drove in a run; Weston Speir hit a triple; and Jake Reece, Finn Lincoln, Wyatt Carter, Dustin Hall and Jordan Friend added one RBI each.
Parish pitched 2 2/3 innings for the victory, allowing one hit while striking out seven batters and walking two.
••••• Brookland scored 17 runs in the first inning Thursday and went on to rout Forrest City 20-0 in 4A-3 conference softball.
Kyleigh Brown was 2-for-2 with a home run, two runs scored and five RBIs for the Lady Bearcats (14-5, 7-1 conference). Laken Carr was also 2-for-2 with two runs scored and three RBIs.
Madilyn Conner had a hit and three RBIs; Avery Toombs drove in three runs; Nicole Flowers had a hit, an RBI and three runs scored; Brianna Patterson had two hits; Kinsey Clark had a hit and scored twice; and Ashlyn McNeese and Aspen Heckethorn scored two runs each.
Madison Wooldridge and McNeese combined on a threeinning no-hitter. Wooldridge struck out five batters in two innings, while McNeese struck out the side in the third.