Last year, Cabot didn't get a chance to defend the Class 6A state softball title it won in 2019 because of covid-19. So far this season, the Lady Panthers are showing its opponents what they may have missed out on.
Cabot (14-0, 5-0 6A-Central) has rarely been tested in rolling to victories in its first 14 games of the season. The Lady Panthers have outscored teams 133-18, with its closest contest being a 5-4 decision over White Hall on March 9.
Chris Cope's team also has posted seven shutouts, including back-to-back 10-0 routs over Searcy and Sheridan, which won the Class 5A state championship the same day Cabot won its title.
But as impressive as the Lady Panthers have been, the fact that they've remained unbeaten with just one senior on the roster is even more astonishing.
"Savannah Snow is really the only player back that has varsity experience," Cope said. "Everybody's new. We've got some juniors, sophomores and freshmen starting right now, but they've played well."
The Lady Panthers were playing well last season, too, after winning their first four games by a combined score of 38-3 until the coronavirus caused spring sports to be shut down. That team, however, was senior-laden, with four players who signed to play collegiately.
This year was supposed to be a rebuilding one, but Cabot has reloaded.
Snow, the only senior, and others, such as freshmen Emily Titus and Emily Whitman, have provided a number of big hits all season. It was Whitman's two-run home run in the third inning that broke the game open for the Lady Panthers in their 4-0 victory over Bryant on Tuesday in a battle for first place in the 6A-Central. Sophomore pitcher Akayla Barnard also gave up just three hits for Cabot in the win.
"When you have nine brand new starters, you really don't know what to expect," Cope explained. "But they've done the things we've wanted them to do so far. The girls have a smile on their faces again because they're finally back out there on the diamond and getting a chance to play every day."
PARAGOULD BASEBALL
Back at it
Paragould Coach Dakota Weatherley said what every other baseball coach in Arkansas was thinking when he recently revealed how happy he felt to be back on the field this year after the 2020 campaigns ended prematurely.
That claim is especially significant for Weatherley, who was facing a different type of battle at this point last season.
The Rams' fourth-year coach was embroiled in a fight with Stage 4 metastatic melanoma, which is an advanced phase of skin cancer. However in August, Weatherley announced that after getting aggressive treatments, he was cancer free. He'll continue to get care for an extended period to make sure the disease doesn't return, but in the meantime, it's back to business.
"Man it's been great," Weatherley said. "You don't realize how bad you miss it until it's gone and back again. I enjoy every day I get to get out there with those guys. It really is a blast."
Paragould (1-15, 1-5 5A-East) has gotten off to a slow start and faces an uphill climb in a competitive conference that's currently led by both Jonesboro and Marion. That's not to say the Rams don't have time to get back on track.
"We really just try to show up every day and work our tails off," Weatherley noted. "Do it with a high sense of character, and it's a lot of fun."
VIOLA BASEBALL
Champs still stacked
The last team to win the Class 1A state baseball title had to wait a little longer than some to get 2021 underway. Yet, Viola Coach Clayton Gardner didn't mind it too much because the Longhorns were busy collecting more hardware.
"We're trying to play catch-up a little bit," he said. "When you win the basketball state championship, which is a great thing, it put us back a couple of weeks. Normally, we'd have 16-18 games in by now. ... we've got nine in. So we're behind, but we're coming around."
Viola (8-1, 5-0 2A-2) opened the season two days after beating West Side Greers Ferry in the Class 1A basketball final by splitting a pair of games against Bergman and Piggott. But the Longhorns have since won seven games in a row, six of which have come by nine runs or more.
The way Viola has played has been a pleasant surprise for Gardner, whose team is looking to win consecutive state championships for the first time since 1998-99. The Longhorns returned four players who started on that 2019 title-winning team, including senior Gage Harris, but got added help when triplets Bryson Luna, Auston Luna and Mason Luna transferred in from Dora, Mo., when their dad, Rick, took over the boys' basketball team last summer.
All three players were named to the Missouri Class 1A all-state team in 2019.
"Mixing those three with what we had already, it just made us better," Gardner said. "We were going to be OK anyway. I don't know if we were going to be good enough to really compete for [title], but now, I think we're capable. The way that everything has meshed has been great.
"The way we've overcome the coronavirus this fall and have come together so fast has been really good to see."
BRYANT BASEBALL
Hornets buzzing
Bryant has paid extra attention to itself this season, and Coach Travis Queck is just fine with that.
"We just focus on ourselves and try to get better every day," he said. "These guys have done a good job and attacked the season because they really wanted to play, especially after what happened last year. They've done all the safety protocols and all the things they were supposed to do to get to this point.
"They've got added motivation, and we've got a large senior class that wants to go out the right way."
The Hornets have certainly played the right way. Bryant (16-1, 6-0 6A-Central), which has won its last nine games going into today's home matchup with reigning Class 6A champ North Little Rock, has beaten every team on its schedule. Its lone loss was to Greenbrier, 4-2, on March 13 -- 11 days after the Hornets beat the Panthers 4-3.
Queck said pitching has been a huge reason for his team's success. The Hornets have surrendered two runs or less in nine games. In Tuesday night's 7-2 victory at Cabot, junior pitcher and UALR commit Turner Seelinger gave up just five hits in 51/3 innings.
But Bryant has a surplus of arms to use, from senior University of Arkansas commit Austin Ledbetter to his classmate and Tarleton State University pledge Aiden Adams.
"We pride ourselves on pitching and defense," Queck explained. "If you don't have pitching, you're not going to play much defense. We're fortunate to have quite a bit of it this year. And we've got some young guys that have really worked hard to develop their game and put themselves in position to help out this year.
"But these guys are working hard, helping each other and challenging each other every day. That's the biggest thing we've got going for us."