Title hungry : Fayetteville gears up for state championship defense
Posted on Saturday, May 10, 2008
Fayetteville has weathered its share of hard knocks this season but now the blows will be more intense.
The Purple Dogs will begin a run at a possible third-straight state championship Saturday at noon. The Class 7 A State Tournament begins today but Fayetteville's second-consecutive 7 A-West title earned it a bye in today's opening round.
Seventeen of Fayetteville's 30 games this season have been decided by two runs or less. Luckily for the Purple Dogs, they were able to win 15 of those matches, greatly contributing to a school-record 24-game winning streak, 27-3 overall mark and 13-1 conference record.
That has Fayetteville skipper Vance Arnold cautiously optimistic heading into the state tournament.
"The kids have swung the bats well all year," Arnold said. "We've had some lapses where we haven't played well and didn't concentrate. The kids know one loss and you're out and we can't have those kinds of lapses right now. One pitcher, one situation that you're not prepared to control can knock you out of that state tournament."
Now every error, every baserunning mistake and the significance of every pitch is magnified.
"We've talked to the kids this week about keeping that mental edge," Arnold said. "We want to kids to be prepared for every situ- ation. If we get a big lead early, we want to keep pushing because it's not over. And we've proven that the last two years just because we're down early or even late that the game's not over."
Fayetteville has to feel pretty good about its chances, entering the tournament 9-1 against the field. But the peek inside the 7 A-Central Conference that Fayetteville typically gets before tournament time was quashed due to weather. Tornadoes in the Central Arkansas area forced the cancellation of a road trip in which Fayetteville was slated to clash against the 7 A-Central's top-seeded Little Rock Catholic as well as Little Rock Central.
Cold weather forced the cancellation of the Purple Dogs' regular-season match with Conway last season. The Purple Dogs later edged the Wampus Cats for the 7 A state title at Baum Stadium last season, 6-5.
This season Fayetteville will face Van Buren today at noon. Van Buren outlasted Bryant, 11-5 on Friday in the first round. Bryant (16-6, 9-5 ) was the Central's four seed and Van Buren (15-11, 7-7 ) finished fifth in the West. Fayetteville will start Taylor Shaddy (7-0 ) on the mound against the Pointers.
Springdale Har-Ber rallied late in the season to earn the West's two seed and a bye for the state tournament. The Wildcats (21-9, 10-4 ) will face the victor of Conway-Bentonville Saturday a 2: 30 p.m. Conway (19-10, 9-5 ) earned the Central's third seed and Bentonville (13-16, 6-8 ) settled for the West's sixth seed.
Catholic (18-8, 11-3 ) and North Little Rock (19-10, 10-4 ) received first-round byes in the Central. Catholic will clash with the winner of Rogers-Pine Bluff. Rogers ( 14-9, 9-5 ) is the West's four seed and Pine Bluff (12-13, 6-8 ) enters the tourney as the Central's five seed.
North Little Rock will face the winner of Fort Smith Southside-Cabot Saturday at 2: 30 p.m. Southside (18-11, 9-5 ) is the West's three seed and Cabot (14-11, 6-8 ) qualified for the tournament late with a sweep of top-seeded Catholic in their final league twinbill to net the six seed.
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