Diamond ’Hawks get off to great start

Both the boys baseball and the girls softball teams have gotten off to fast starts for the 2018 season.

Having both raced out to 4-1 marks to start their respective campaigns, both teams have a very busy schedule this week on the field, weather permitting. The boys split a pair of games last week, beating district rival Berryville 12-0 before losing to 7A team Bentonville West, a large school team with a 5-0 record.

The girls played in a softball tournament over the weekend, but the results were not known as press time.

The boys will be playing four out of six days this week. They were scheduled to play West Fork Monday, Gentry Tuesday night, Huntsville Thursday, with Crossett coming to town from way down south Saturday. The Crossett Eagles have a fine 6-2 record to date.

The girls team matched up with Gentry Monday, and were set to play Gravette Tuesday. After playing Huntsville Thursday, they will likely be playing three games at the Ozark Invitational. They are scheduled to play Salem in the first round Friday.

4A-3A-1 Baseball standings Conference All games games

Shiloh Christian Elkins Lincoln Greenland Gravette West Fork Gentry

Pea Ridge Prairie Grove 1-0 1-0 1-0 2-1 0-1 0-1 0-2 0-0 0-0 3-3 5-0 3-2 4-1 1-3 0-2 0-4 4-1 2-3

4A-3A-1 Softball standings Conference All games games

Lincoln Pea Ridge Prairie Grove West Fork Gentry Greenland Elkins Gravette 2-0 2-0 2-1 1-1 0-2 0-2 0-0 0-0 4-0 4-1 2-3 2-2 1-4 1-4 0-3 2-0

Baptist Prep wins third straight championship

Though it came as a surprise, Little Rock Baptist Prep successfully defended their 4A state basketball title with a 76-52 drubbing of Jonesboro Westside in the state championship game last week.

Losing their 7’3” center who moved to Las Vegas for his senior year, most folks (including me) thought that they would not be playing long into March. I was mistaken, as they shot the ball very well, led by all-state junior player Isaac McBride. They will not be around to defend their 4A title next season as they will plying their trade in the 3A classification next season.

Their third title was no cake walk, as they lost their regional tournament to Batesville Southside and they need a 3-point bucket by McBride at the final buzzer to defeat Riverview 42-40 in the state semifinals. Westside got into the finals by making a buzzer beating layup to knock off favored Southside 59-57. Southside lost their 6’10” center for the final minutes of the game, a player who had kept the lid shut on driving layups. The foreign import player fouled out of the game.

Over in the girls side of things, Central Arkansas Christian cruised to an easy title over Riverview. Representing the east, both finalists had to get past the North regions two semifinalists, Berryville and Pottsville.

This year was a down year for teams in the southern half of Arkansas, as none made either the girls or the boys semifinals in the state tourney, with the teams ranking well below the teams from the northeast and northwest.

The two top classifications had double dippers with North Little Rock winning both the girls and boys titles in 7A with the same thing happening in 6A with Jonesboro taking both those crowns.

•••

Editor’s note: John McGee, an award-winning columnist and sports writer. He can be contacted through The Times at prtnews@ nwadg.com.