Legion Teams Battle For Titles

Gravette baseball coach Randall Hunt already has pretty good idea of how his team will look next spring, months before it takes the field.

Hunt, who just finished his first season as the Lions' coach, has most of his high school team's player on his AA American Legion team's roster. That allows him to spend the entire summer working with his own players who will play big roles for Gravette next spring.

American Legion Baseball

Senior Area Zone Tournament

At Hendrix College, Conway

Friday

Game 1: Cabot vs. Bentonville, 4:30 p.m.

Game 2: Conway vs. FS Kerwins, 7:30 p.m.

Game 3: Russellville vs. Jacksonville, 9:30 a.m.

Game 4: NLR vs. Searcy, 12:30 p.m.

Saturday

Game 5: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 3, 9:30 a.m.

Game 6: Loser Game 2 vs. Loser Game 4, 12:30 p.m.

Game 7: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 3, 4:30 p.m.

Game 8: Winner Game 2 vs. Winner Game 4, 7:30 pm.

Sunday

Game 9: Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 7, 12:30 p.m.

Game 10: Winner Game 5 vs. Loser Game 8, 4:30 p.m.

Game 11: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 7:30 p.m.

Monday

Game 12: Winner Game 9 vs. Loser Game 11, 1 p.m.

Game 13: Winner Game 10 vs. Winner Game 11, 7 p.m.

Tuesday

Game 14: Winner Game 12 vs. Winner Game 13, 4 p.m.

Game 15: If necessary, 7:30 p.m.

AA Zone Tournament

At Morrilton

Saturday

Game 1: Gravette vs. Jonesboro, noon

Game 2: Maumelle vs. Morrilton, 9:30 a.m.

Game 3: Stuttgart vs. Pine Bluff, 2:30 p.m.

Game 4: Clarksville vs. Winner Game 1, 5 p.m.

Game 5: Winner Game 2 vs. Winner Game 3, 7:30 p.m.

Sunday

Game 6: Loser Game 2 vs. Loser Game 3, 11 a.m.

Game 7: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game, 1:30 p.m.

Game 8: Loser Game 4 vs. Winner Game 6, 4 p.m.

Game 9: Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5, 6:30 p.m.

Monday

Game 10: Winner Game 8 vs. Winner Game 7, 5 p.m.

Game 11: Loser Game 9 vs. Winner Game 10, 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday

Game 12: Winner Game 9 vs. Winner Game 11, 5 p.m.

Game 13: If necessary, 7:30 p.m.

"With the exception of just a couple of players, pretty much this team is all Gravette players," Hunt said.

The Lions will compete in the AA American Legion Zone 1 Tournament in Morrilton starting Saturday. The top 4 teams from the zone tournament will advance to the state tournament in Harrison.

Gravette (6-10) battled the elements early this summer with a number of games rained out.

"The season has gone about as well as one can expect," Hunt said. "We had a tough start to the season with all the rain in June and lost some games early."

Last weekend the Lions played in a wood bat tournament in Independence, Mo., and posted a 2-3 record.

Hunt said getting away and facing new teams and new challenges was nice for his young squad.

"We had a lot of fun with the wood bats and got to face some great teams," he said. "Our kids enjoyed playing against teams from Nebraska and Kansas. It was neat to face some different teams."

Cody Fields has been a bright spot for Gravette this summer, although it has not been as his normal shortstop position. Fields has spent the majority of the summer behind the plate at catcher.

"He has done an excellent job for us this summer, controlling the games," Hunt said. "And he sets the tone for us at the lead-off spot offensively."

Several of Gravette's players graduated this spring, including Aaron Means and Ethan Vanderpool, both of whom are headed to play college baseball.

Hunt said the leadership shown to the younger players by Vanderpool and Means has been a value to the team this summer.

"Ethan pitched last week in Kansas City, and his coaches from Longview Community College were able to come and watch him pitch," Hunt said. "He and Aaron and several others have done a great job of taking these younger players under their week and showing them the ropes.

Senior Area Zone Tournament

Zones 1 and 3 have merged together for the Senior Area Zone Tournament at Hendrix College in Conway starting today.

Bentonville is the only senior American Legion team remaining in Northwest Arkansas.

The Tigers have played just 12 games this season, and only six since the middle of June, said manager Kyle Blevins.

"We had a pretty tough year with rainouts and a car wreck," he said. "I think we've got some talented kids, but we really have not played together enough."

The Tigers finished as the runner-up at the Mountain Home Tournament in June, but have struggled to find games since them.

"We played (Fort Smith) Kerwins and lost 3-0, but we had a stretch of about two to two and a-half weeks where we did not play at all," Blevins said. "We've pitched well, but we haven't hit real good."

Kane Koenigseder has been a standout for the Tigers at catcher this summer, Blevins said. Will Jibas and Chad Musteen have led the offense.

Blevins said his pitching, led by Preston Rosales and Payton Fitch, has been solid.

The manager said Kerwins will be one of the favorites at the zone tournament. The top 4 teams in the zone tournament will advance to the state tournament in Bryant.

Sports on 07/18/2014

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