by Troy Mitchell
Following opening round bracket play, the final eight teams are set to battle for the 2024 American Legion Juniors (17U) State Championship.
The 8-team double-elimination tournament begins Monday at Majestic Park with four games on the schedule.
The first game of the event features Conway taking on the Bryant Black Sox at Noon followed by the Cabot RailCubs against the Texarkana Razorback Rivers set for a 2:30 p.m. start.
The third game on the docket is Stuttgart Ricemen battling the Little Rock Warriors with first pitch scheduled for 5 p.m.
The marque game of day one puts Arkadelphia against the 2023 American Legion State Champions Lake Hamilton scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.
The tournament will continue with four games on Tuesday and Wednesday. The elimination bracket final game is scheduled for Thursday followed by the Championship that same day. A final game will be played Friday if necessary.
The eight teams competed in separate four opening round five or six-team brackets last week with the first and second place teams advancing to the championship bracket.
GAME 1 – Conway (3-0) vs. Bryant Black Sox (3-1)
The Conway pitching staff has been superb, allowing just two runs in19 innings for a 0.47 ERA. Silas Cicero recorded a no-hitter in a 2-0 win over the Little Rock Warriors last week. Cicero faced three batters above the minimum and struck out 12 batters in the process.
Offensively, Conway has been limited to just .225 hitting, but have benefitted from 27 walks.
Bryant fought through the elimination bracket after losing their first game to Stuttgart. The Black Sox rallied and outscored their opponents 41 to 7 the next three games to advance to this week’s championship bracket.
The Black Sox are hitting .349 as a team with Owen Woods and Grant Davis leading the way. Woods has a .667 average with 6 RBI, while Davis is hitting .571.
GAME 2 – Cabot RailCubs (3-0) vs. Texarkana Razorbacks Rivers (3-1)
Cabot claimed Bracket 3 winning all three games including a 6-3 victory over Arkadelphia in the winner’s bracket final.
William Poe has led the RailCubs offensively going 5-for-10 last week with a double, two triples and 3 RBI.
The pitching staff has been solid sporting a 3.43 ERA with Jake Steelman leading the way with a 1.29 ERA while striking out three batters and scattering six hits in 7 innings of work.
After losing their opening round game to White Hall, Texarkana won three straight games, including a double-header last Thursday to advance to the round of eight.
Texarkana sports a solid .339 team batting average led by Dylan Nabors who leads the tournament with an impressive .800 average (8-for-10) with 4 doubles, 6 runs scored and 7 RBI.
Despite winning three games, Texarkana’s pitching has struggled a bit with a 6.28 earned run average while allowing 25 runs, walking 35 batters in four games.
GAME 3 – Stuttgart Ricemen (3-0) vs. Little Rock Warriors (3-1)
Stuttgart has been impressive in its first three games outscoring opponents 27 to 7 including a tough-fought 3-2 win over Bryant.
Hayden Prine and Dagan Duncan lead the Ricemen offensively, both hitting .455 with Prine having 8 RBI and Duncan 6.
Duncan also recorded a win on the mound over the Little Rock Battlebirds allowing just three hits and striking out 8.
The Warriors regrouped after its opening round 2-0 loss to Conway, winning three straight games including a 14-13 last inning victory over Springdale.
Connor Davis leads the squad hitting .455 while Carter Sangalli is hitting .375 for the Warriors.
GAME 4 – Lake Hamilton (2-0) vs. Arkadelphia (2-1)
The defending champions Lake Hamilton outscored its opponents 26 to 4 in the two games last week.
The Wolves have hit .397 collectively with Devin Hudson and Adam Gregory gathering five hits each. Zayde Cox is 4-for-7 with a double, triple and 7 RBI.
Coy Autrey leads the pitching staff after his 5-inning no-hitter in the 11-1 win over Perryville in a game where he struck out 11 batters.
Arkadelphia enters the week with both a balanced offense and pitching with the team hitting .278 while having a 3.00 ERA in three games.
Cash Stricklin paces Arkadelphia, both at the plate and on the mound. Stricklin is 7-for-12 with a pair of doubles, while not allowing an earned run in six innings including fanning 10 batters.
Judd Smith will also be valuable to the Arkadelphia pitching staff after appearing in two games, having a 2.25 ERA in 8 innings of work with 11 punchouts and limiting opponents to a .103 batting average.
To follow the tournament and get complete game recaps and tournament updated times, go www.arkansasamericanlegionbaseball.com
Games can also be live streamed at livebarn.com
Those wishing to video stream the tournament must sign up for a subscription. Type in the code maje-stic for a 10 percent discount.
Following subscribing, select Majestic Park in the search bar, click on streams and then select the Babe Ruth Field.
Luke Matheson has been covering high school sports in Arkansas since 2005. Before then he served in the United States Army for 8 years. Email Luke at Luke@NaturalStateSports.com