By Jason Avery
News-Times Staff
EL DORADO - After a decades-long hiatus, American Legion postseason baseball is returning to Union County.
The American Legion Junior Area Tournament begins this morning at Smackover with eight teams vying for two spots to qualify for the state tournament, and Smackover coach B.J. Greene hopes this will be the first of many tournaments to come.
“First and foremost, I think it’s great for Union County and even better for Smackover to host this tournament,” Greene said. “This is the first true meaningful Legion tournament in South Arkansas in probably 30 years, so this is a big tournament for our little area to host. We’re excited to be able to host it, and hopefully we can get more down here as we go.”
There will be a local fervor to the event, as Union County will have three teams participating.
The El Dorado Drillers will square off with the El Dorado Wildcats in the tournament’s first game at 9:30 a.m., while Smackover will take on Arkadelphia at 12:30 p.m.
Texarkana will face Monticello at 3:30 p.m. and Benton Williams Tire will take on Poyen at 6:30 p.m. to conclude Saturday’s play.
The contest between the Drillers and Wildcats will be the first, and Wildcats coach Eli Lester said his team is looking forward to the challenge.
“I think our kids are excited to play, and they know a lot of the kids,” Lester said. “They grew up playing against them, so there’s an excitement there.”
Lester added that the Wildcats have made steady progress after a tough start.
“We played some older teams, but we learned from it, and we got a lot of experience from it,” Lester said. “Throughout the summer, we have gotten better almost every game, and that’s all we can ask for with this young group of kids.”
One issue that the Wildcats will face is that today’s game will be the first after an extended period of being idle.
“It’s been at least two weeks since we’ve played, so we should be really fresh,” Lester said. “I’m sure some kids went on vacation during this time, which is good for them to get their mind off of baseball. I’m sure they’ve been doing it since about January or February, so we should be really fresh and probably anxious to get back on the field. Hopefully, we can come back out and continue to build on what we’ve been doing this summer.”
The Drillers, who have a strong contingent of players from Junction City and Parkers Chapel, have the opportunity to have a lengthy stay..
“Our team has shown to have a slew of young pitching talent and have the bats to battle in any game situation,” said Greg Harrison, who serves as the general manager for the Drillers and El Dorado Oilers. “Whether being able to pile runs on in bunches or battling back when we have a deficit, I feel this team is tournament ready to finish strong in the zone tournament. With the top two teams of this tournament qualifying for state, we have made this our goal for the upcoming weekend.”
As is the case with the Wildcats, Harrison believes the competition the Drillers have faced will have them prepared for the postseason.
“Youth has not been an obstacle,” Harrison said. “This year’s team has shown the ability to compete with other 17U teams this summer. Playing a mix of junior programs across South Arkansas has prepared this team for the quality of talent to expect in the tournament.”
Smackover has played against both the Wildcats and Drillers, and Greene likes what both teams have to offer.
“They’re both good teams with good, quality athletes,” Greene said. “It’s a testament to the baseball in Union County when we can have that many teams playing Legion. That’s the thing I really like because it’s getting to showcase our area down here because there is a lot of baseball talent.”
The summer has been one of growth for the Bucks, particularly with the pitching staff.
“We’ve had a lot of improvement with our pitching staff,” Greene said. “We hired Jeff Burson full-time, and he put in a pitching program, which our pitchers are doing every day, and we’ve had kids gain up to five, six miles an hour just in about a month and a half, so it’s obvious the stuff he’s doing is working. He’s been a great hire for us.
“I think we’ve had a good summer. We haven’t gotten a whole lot of games in due to the weather, but our kids have competed, and I’ll be the first to tell you that I don’t know that we have the overall athleticism that we’ve had in the past at Smackover, but the kids we’ve got are competitive and are wanting to get better. That’s a good mix.”
As far as the contest with Arkadelphia is concerned, Greene believes his team is comparable to them, but like the Wildcats, they haven’t seen much game action of late.
“I think we’re going to have a decent chance at playing well,” Greene said. “Our only problem is we’ve had a week and a half off where most of the teams we’re going to be playing will be playing through the dead period, so they won’t be as rusty as we are, but that’s why we’re practicing. Arkadelphia is a team we played earlier in the year, and they were up 1-0 on us when we got rained out in the second inning. I think we’re very comparable to them, and we’re looking forward to the chance of getting that win and moving on in the tournament.”