District Tourneys Begin Today

4A-1 Set For Gentry, 3A-1 At Elkins

Gravette's baseball team is loaded with talent but finds itself needing two wins today to keep its season alive at the 4A-1 Conference Tournament at Gentry.

The fifth-seeded Lions (11-11, 3-4 4A-1) open against eight-seeded Lincoln (2-19, 0-7) at noon today, the first of four games on the day. The winner will play No. 4 Prairie Grove (10-15, 5-2) at 5 p.m. for a spot to next week's 4A North Regional at Prairie Grove.

PREP BASEBALL

4A-1 Conference Tournament

at Gentry

Today

Game 1: No. 5 Gravette vs. No. 8 Lincoln, noon

Game 2: No. 6 Gentry vs. No. 7 Berryville, 2:30 p.m.

Game 3: No. 3 Huntsville vs. Game 2 winner, 5 p.m.

Game 4: No. 4 Prairie Grove vs. Game 1 winner, 7:30 p.m.

Friday

Game 5: No. 1 Shiloh Christian vs. Game 4 winner, 11 a.m.

Game 6: No. 2 Pea Ridge vs. Game 3 winner, 1:30 p.m.

Monday

Championship

Game 7: Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 6 p.m.

*Top 4 teams advance to 4A North Regional at Prairie Grove, May 5-7

3A-1 Confernce Tournament

at Elkins

Today

Game 1: No. 3 West Fork vs. No. 6 Cedarville, 4 p.m.

Game 2: No. 4 Lavaca vs. No. 5 Elkins, 6:30 p.m.

Friday

Game 3: No. 1 Mansfield vs. Game 2 winner, 4 p.m.

Game 4: No. 2 Greenland vs. Game 1 winner, 6:30 p.m.

Saturday: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner, noon (Championship)

*Top 4 teams advance to 3A West Regional at Atkins, May 5-7

Regular season champ and No. 1 seed Shiloh Christian (10-9, 6-1) and No. 2 Pea Ridge (16-2, 6-1) already have secured two of the four available regional berths and will play Friday. The championship game will be played at 6 p.m. Monday.

No. 6 Gentry (10-13, 2-5) plays No. 7 Berryville (8-13-1, 1-6) at 2:30 p.m. today. The winner will battle for the other regional opening against No. 3 Huntsville (14-6, 5-2) at 7:30 p.m.

"Our conference is very tough," said Gravette coach Randall Hunt. "We always feel, top to bottom, the four that get to represent us in the regionals that all four of our teams are going to have a chance for state. And in year's past, it's proven that."

Three 4A-1 teams have advanced to the state tournament by reaching the regional semifinals the past two seasons. In 2013, all four 4A-1 teams made it to state by dominating the 4A-4 during regionals.

"We kind of beat each other up here in the Northwest Arkansas corner," Hunt said. "A lot of great competition. A lot of players who will go on to play at the next level and you see the results. We've been able to take advantage of taking on that level of competition, and it really shows when we play the rest of the state."

In conference play, Gravette has scored more runs (55) than every team except Pea Ridge (66), so the Lions have the offensive firepower to make noise this week. However, they've given up 41 runs, the third most in 4A-1 play.

If the Lions advance, they'll likely face Prairie Grove senior right-hander Logan Gragg, a Connors State signee who leads the league with 80 strikeouts and a 1.02 ERA in 48 innings. Gravette hasn't faced Gragg, the only pitcher in the league to beat Shiloh Christian (11 strikeouts in a 2-1 win on April 4). It was Tigers' right-hander Gavin Heltemes who defeated the Lions 9-6 on March 31.

"Hopefully, we'll come out with a little bit of urgency and have something more to play for, trying to get to regionals," Hunt said.

3A-1 at Elkins

Third-seeded West Fork and fifth-seeded Elkins needs wins today at 3A-1 Conference Tournament to advance to 3A West Regional, which begins May 5 at Atkins.

The Tigers (11-5, 7-3) open the tourney at 4 p.m. against sixth-seeded Cedarville (2-18, 0-10), a team they beat 18-0 and 8-4 on Monday.

The host Elks (8-11, 3-7) take on No. 4 Lavaca (8-8, 4-6) today at 6:30 p.m.. They split an April 4 doubleheader with Elkins winning the opener 1-0, but losing the nightcap 3-0.

"This game could go either way," said Elkins coach Jeff Eddleman, who earned his 300th career win earlier this season. "We've been kind of up and down all year and that's kind of how we've still been playing, so we're hoping the good shows up [today.]"

Top-seeded Mansfield (15-4, 8-2) and No. 2 Greenland (15-10, 8-2) shared the regular season conference title. Because they sport identical league records and split against each other (Mansfield won 3-2 on April 13, but lost 2-1 on April 14), a point system tiebreaker determined seeding for the tournament.

Sports on 04/28/2016

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