Arkansas high school baseball state championships preview: Class 6A, 2A and 1A
By Kevin Bohannon | Photo by Jimmy Jones
Over the next two days we will take an in-depth look at each state championship game that will be played at the Benton Athletic Complex Thursday through Saturday.
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Class 2A
Woodlawn Bears vs Bigelow Panthers
When: Thursday at 10:00 am
Records: Woodlawn 26-6 Bigelow 15-8
Coaches: Woodlawn: Tommy Richardson Bigelow: Craig Neumeier
Road to Benton: Woodlawn: 8-2A Conference Champions, 3rd Place 2A South Regional, defeated St. Joseph 15-1 in First Round, Riverside 7-3 in Second Round, Buffalo Island Central 6-3 in Semi-finals.
Bigelow: 5-2A Conference Co-Champions, 4th Place 2A Central Regional, defeated Dierks 8-4 in First Round, Rector 11-1 in Second Round, McCrory 10-4 in Semi-finals.
Analysis: While Woodlawn was expected to reach the title game for the sixth straight season, Bigelow was a talented middle-of-the-pack team that has played at a high level when it means the most. Woodlawn head coach Tommy Richardson is gunning for his ninth state championship, and this may have been his best coaching job to date. Senior Cale Edmonds was lost for most of the season due to an elbow injury but returned in the Bears’ first-round state tournament game against St. Joseph. Since returning, Edmonds has hit .700 for the tournament and appeared in all three games on the mound including the last five innings against Buffalo Island Central.
Richardson needed underclassmen to step up in the place of Edmonds, and they have responded. Freshman Tate Hall was 2-4 in the semi-finals and has played like a veteran all season.
Bigelow appeared on the radar after starting 4-0 in conference play before losing to Southside Bee Branch. They recovered and defeated previously unbeaten St. Joseph 6-5 to claim a share of the regular-season conference title. A 1-2 showing in the 2A Central Regional Tournament did not discourage Coach Craig Neumeier’s bunch. They quickly dispatched 2A South regional champion Dierks in the first round 8-4 before getting a superb pitching performance from Sophomore Beau Billeck in an 11-1 win over Rector in round two.
The “team first” moniker gets thrown around a lot in high school sports, but the Panthers really believe the name on the front of the jersey is more important than the name on the back. Senior Hunter Alexander shifted to catcher for the first time since his freshman year in the semifinal victory over McCrory. After its victory, Coach Neumeier said, “This group has been like this all year…even with getting things on and off the bus, everybody has accepted their roles.”
While some may see this as a “David vs Goliath” matchup, the Panthers feel they have been tested all season and seem to play their best in the biggest games. The stage doesn’t get any bigger than this week…A stage Woodlawn has been on six straight years.
Prediction: Both teams have pitchers they can turn to if their starter gets in trouble and that could keep the game close should that happen. I have a feeling this game will go down to the wire, but in the end, experience wins out. I am going with Woodlawn.
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Class 6A
Conway Wampus Cats vs Bentonville Tigers
When: Thursday at 4:00 pm
Records: Conway 18-9 Bentonville 22-10
Coaches: Conway: Leighton Hardin Bentonville: Todd Abbott
Road to Benton: Conway-6A Central runner up, defeated Fort Smith Southside 3-0 in Second Round, Rogers Heritage 10-0 in semifinals. Bentonville-4th place 6A West, defeated NLR 7-2 in first round, LR Catholic in second round, Springdale Har-Ber 7-3 in semifinals
Analysis: Two teams that were ranked in our 6A Super 7 rankings most of the season, but neither were expected to make it to the championship game. That’s baseball folks. Conway led the 6A-Central going into the final two weeks of the season but dropped a key game against LR Catholic that gave them the two seed for the state tournament.
Conway head coach Leighton Hardin used an unorthodox approach in conference games in how he used his pitching staff. For the most part ,it worked the way he had planned, and the Wampus Cats saw success. Senior Austin Rainey starated. Junior Preston Prock handled middle reliever duties before turning the game over to Junior Hugh Hill. The left-right-left combination kept offenses off-balance and allowed their offense to be more aggressive at the plate. Senior Zach Szuba, Junior Samuel Gregg, and Sophomore Tucker Satterfield led the offense and came through with big hits this past weekend.
Bentonville started the 2022 season in impressive fashion by splitting their conference series with Har-Ber before winning the Gulf Coast Classic over spring break with a 6-0 record. The next couple of weeks were not as kind to the Tigers as they went 5-6 and were swept by Fort Smith Southside and Rogers during that stretch. Since then, Todd Abbott’s club has rounded in to form and played clean baseball for the most part. With their backs against the wall in the semi-finals against conference rival Har-Ber and down to their final out, the Tigers exploded for six runs to go ahead 7-3. Tony Woodie, who had struck out three times in the game, belted a three0run homerun to set the final margin. After the game Abbott said, “We have run into inconsistencies this year, but one thing this team has never failed to do is believe in each other.”
Prediction: This is a rematch of the 2015 Class 7A State Championship that Bentonville won 6-5. The Tigers have not appeared in a title game since then while Conway is making it’s first appearance since 2018 when they lost to Har-Ber. On paper, this is an even matchup and could go either way. This game features two of the premier backstops in the state in Zach Szuba and Rowan Christensen so extra bases will come at a premium. Will Conway go with their three-headed monster on the mound? Will Bentonville start fast or finish strong…or both? I like Conway in this one.
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Class 1A
Nemo Vista Red Hawks vs Taylor Tigers
When: Friday 1:00 pm
Records: Nemo Vista 19-9 Taylor 18-5-2
Coaches: Nemo Vista: Cuyler Marty Taylor: Brian Fowler
Road to Benton: Nemo Vista-4-1A Conference Champions, Region 3 Champions, defeated Hermitage 9-4 in first round, Izard County 8-6 in second round, Ouachita 6-1 in Semi-finals. Taylor-8-1A Conference Champions, Region 4 Runner Up, defeated Sacred Heart 14-4 in first round, West Side 11-9 in second round, Mount Ida 11-1 in semifinals.
Analysis: Region 4 was the strongest region after having three teams in the semifinals, Nemo Vista was the outcast from Region 3. Taylor is the team with the most postseason experience. They reached the title game in 2019 and lost a close 6-5 game to Viola. Nemo Vista was in and out of the SBLive Super 7 rankings and saved their best baseball for the last two weeks. A turning point in their season occurred after their April 15th doubleheader with Ouachita when they lost 18-2 and 12-2. They are 9-1 since losing that day with their only loss coming at the hands of Wonderview 6-2.
What was the difference in the semifinal win over Ouachita? Wesley Honeycutt. The senior ace did not pitch in the first two matchups with the Warriors but was available and very effective in the Red Hawks win. Ouachita head coach Anthony Nail said, “He was tough, we helped him y chasing letter high fastballs, but he kept attacking,” in reference to Honeycutt.
Christian Rodelo had a three-run walk-off home run to defeat Izard County and send the Red Hawks to a rematch with Ouachita. Taylor shocked the state by upsetting previous #1 West Side Greers Ferry 11-9 in the Second Round. Taylor kept chipping away and took advantage of West Side’s tiring pitcher and kept applying pressure ultimately taking the lead and never looking back in the upset win. The Tigers defeated Mount Ida twice in as many weeks to get to the title game. Their 11-1 win in last Saturday's semifinal game was more of a coronation as opposed to the 5-4 nailbiter in the semi-final of the regional tournament. Head coach Brian Fowler has had a lot of success as the Tigers skipper and has his team primed to finish strong.
Prediction: Taylor has played the stronger schedule, but Nemo Vista did something in the postseason the Tigers did not do, beat Ouachita. You cannot put too much stock into common opponents in 1A baseball, but it is fun to look at on occasion. Both teams upset Region 1 powerhouses and I could see some late inning heroics in this one. I am going with Red Hawks in a mild upset.
