A season that began officially Feb. 15 when spring sports team could start holding permissible practices reaches the beginning of a conclusion Monday. All four teams from the Land of Logan will play opening games of the 13th District Tournament about 20 miles apart that evening.
There are no guarantees for particular teams, but we do know that at least one team will have a minimum of two more games after Monday, that one team’s season will come to an end, and that as many as three teams could be finished for 2013 when the evening is over. In fact, three of them go into their games as underdogs.
The sure thing is that the winner of Baseball Clash of the Cats III 2013 will move on to Tuesday’s championship game and next week’s 4th Region Tournament. And the loser will hang up school uniforms for 10 months.
That Russellville-Logan County baseball game will be played at Franklin-Simpson’s Greg Shelton Field, beginning at 7 p.m. First the host Wildcats and Todd Central are scheduled to open the tournament at 5:30. It would be rare for one baseball game to end and another be ready to start an hour and a half later. It’s possible that could become a reality this time, however, since Coach Craig Delk’s Cats (20-13) are heavily favored over the Rebels. Coach Mark Brooks’ Todd team has struggled this year with a 2-30 record.
Logan County has won both regular season Cat Clashes. Coach Ethan Meguiar’s Cougars beat the Panthers 12-2 at Kelly Russell Field and 3-0 at LCHS.
That was a month ago, however, and the gap seems to have narrowed between the two teams. Logan jumped out to a 16-5 record but has only gone 5-5 since then. Russellville has won six of its last nine games, and Coach Greg Shelton’s team enters the tournament with a 17-15 record.
The survivor of the Clash will be at a disadvantage against Franklin if the Cats win with anticipated ease. Veteran Franklin sportscaster James Mooneyhan notes that Delk is likely to start a pitcher who is not his ace against Todd, saving the team’s best arms for either the Cougars or the Panthers. The teams from the Land of Logan will have to pull out all the stops, including using staff aces, to survive and advance.
For both teams, however, it’s questionable who that staff ace is. Before the season began, the role might have been expected to be filled by Thomas Miller of Logan and Corey Wright of Russellville. Both suffered arm injuries in the early going, however, and haven’t been able to pitch most of the year. Meguiar could go with Caleb Bruner, Blake Gettings, Hunter Britt, Ryan Basham, Joe Holliday or others. Shelton could call on Zach Denney, Barrett Croslin, Tyler Hall, Crewsdon Kemp or Jacob Procter.
On the other hand, that means both teams have depth on the mound.
Franklin is 6-0 in the district, but its second win over both teams from the Land of Logan was much closer than the first. The Wildcats beat RHS 7-0 at Kelly Russell Field, but the next time they met it took nine innings for F-S to win 2-1. A week later, Franklin edged Logan 8-7, also in nine innings, after winning 5-1 at LCHS.
The first pitch of the baseball championship game is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at Greg Shelton Field.
Back in Russellville, the district softball tournament will be going on at the same time Monday. It would take a major upset for a Softball Clash of the Cats III to materialize.
The tournament, which will be played at the RHS field, will begin at 5:30 Monday with top-seeded Franklin-Simpson taking on host RHS. Coached by former professional baseball player Matthew Wilhite, the Lady Cats have a 22-13 record and are 6-0 in district players, just like the F-S boys.
Meanwhile Coach Greg Meacham’s Lady Panthers are very, very young. He is going with a team that is based primarily on ninth graders and younger. They broke the program’s prolonged losing streak early in the season, but go into tournament action with a 1-22 record this year and 2-93 in recent years. The rebuilding process is not complete as yet.
Meacham will either use his daughter, eighth grader Macy Meacham, or junior Laura Grace Marksberry on the mound.
In the other game, Todd Central is the favorite after having beaten the Lady Cougars twice, but the games have been far from one-sided. Coach Calvin Head’s Lady Rebels (1-417) won the games by two runs twice, 3-1 ad 2-0. Coach Michael Crawford’s Lady Cougars have recorded six of their seven wins in the last month after starting the season 0-7 and 1-12.
Shelby Milam has started most of Logan’s games on the mound. Freshman Megan Ferguson is a capable reliever.
The girls championship game is scheduled at 7 p.m. Wednesday, so fans won’t have to decide whether to go to the softball or baseball finals. Also, administrators did away with the long night of action in which all three games were played the same evening.