Robinson has field of its own
Jeremiah Buckner has never grown tired of playing baseball for Pulaski Robinson, but there was no doubt he was frustrated by being on the visiting team for every game.
“It was hard for me to keep my grades up because I was checking out after fifth period all of the time because we had to get on the bus to travel,” said Buckner, a senior who has started for the Senators for the last three years. “I had English for seventh period during my 10th-grade year and I was missing it all the time because we didn’t have a home field. All of our games were away.”
Buckner and his teammates don’t have that worry anymore. After 6½ years since the project started, the school’s baseball and softball teams now have fields that they can call their own.
Robinson, which started its baseball program in 1993, played its first baseball game on its new field March 21. The field, which is located behind Robinson Middle School, does not have lights, ample seating, a press box or a scoreboard, but the dugouts are solid, the outfield fence is in place and the infield grass is a perfect shade of green.
“When I was in the seventh grade, I saw them start to tear everything down,” said Buckner, who took a break from raking the field after Monday’s 4A-7 Conference victory over Bauxite. “But I never thought they would finish it in time. It looked the same for a very long time.”
School officials say a large percentage of the work to get the field to where it is now was completed by the school’s parents.
“There was a whole lot of parental involvement,” said Derek Scott, who is the executive director of operations for the school district. “You could say there was a ton of involvement. … Obviously, we’ve still got work to do.
We need lights and stands and restrooms, but most of that will take a millage [increase] to get done.”
School officials said a scoreboard has been ordered and may be in place before the end of the season, but adding lights and seating from dugout to dugout may take a couple of years.
Robinson Coach Isaac Dulaney has some experience with new baseball fields. While at Trinity Christian, a Class 1A school located in Texarkana, Dulaney said that program’s field was taken “to the next level” during his two years at the school.
“We want to make our field appealing to the players,” Dulaney said.
“We want our players to be proud of it and we want every player at every other school to be jealous of it. … This is just the first phase. We have three more to go. There’s going to be something special in the next couple of years.”
LITTLE ROCK CATHOLIC Rockets on top
Little Rock Catholic suffered its first conference loss on Friday, but the Rockets remain on top of the 7A/6A-Central baseball standings. Catholic is 6-1 at the halfway point of league play. Conway and Russellville are tied for second with 4-2 conference records.
The Rockets have posted shutouts in four of their first seven conference games and have outscored their conference opponents 55-9.
“We’re playing as a team, but we’re not doing anything outstanding,” said Catholic Coach Dustin Strube following Wednesday’s 3-1 victory over Conway. “We’re throwing strikes, we’re making plays on defense and we’re getting hits when we need them. The main thing is that we’re playing together. We don’t have any guys that are playing for themselves.”
The Rockets suffered a 3-1 loss at Russellville on Friday. They are scheduled to play at Fort Smith Northside on Tuesday and are at home Wednesday against Little Rock Parkview.
LITTLE ROCK CENTRAL
Tigers take over lead
Thanks to Thursday’s doubleheader sweep of West Memphis, Little Rock Central (5-1) is alone in first place in the 7A/6A-East baseball standings.
Joey Abraham, a Vanderbilt signee, allowed only an infield single and two walks in a 2-0 victory in the opener. Abraham went the distance, striking out 10 and outdueling Ole Miss commitment Gray Fenter (two hits, five strikeouts) in the process.
In the second game, Abraham and Lance Nolen each had two hits in a 6-1 Central victory. Winning pitcher Alex Stillwell allowed only three hits in six innings of work. Walter Bass struck out the side in the seventh to complete the Tigers’ victory.
Central will host Cabot for a doubleheader Tuesday.SIGNINGS Evans to Iowa Western
D.J. Evans, a 6-2 guard from Springdale, has signed to play for Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs, Iowa. A member of the All-Arkansas Preps boys basketball team, Evans averaged 11.4 points, 3.9 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game during his senior season.
Iowa Western has been one of the nation’s top junior college programs and has sent more than 50 players on to Division I programs in the last 15 years. The Reivers finished 23-8 last season and were ranked as high as No. 3 in the nation. They lost their final three games of the season, but two of those games were forfeits because all of the Iowa Western players were suspended for two games after a fight broke out at the end of the Reivers’ game with Moberly (Mo.) Area Community College on Feb.
11.
Other signings reported to the Democrat-Gazette last week:
Kalela Miller, a 5-6 guard from Beebe, has signed to play for Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff, Mo. Miller averaged 19 points and 5 rebounds per game for the Lady Badgers.
Anquinette Dozier of Little Rock Hall has signed a basketball scholarship to play for State Fair Community College in Sedalia, Mo. Dozier averaged 7.2 points and 5.4 rebounds per game for the Lady Warriors.
Brittney Rufus of Little Rock Central has signed a scholarship to play basketball for Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College in Miami, Okla.
Bailee Uhiren of Cabot has signed a scholarship to play volleyball for Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Mo.
Sports, Pages 29 on 04/13/2014