By Jason Avery
News-Times Staff
After falling short in their quest to reach the state tournament last year, the El Dorado Drillers are hoping that playing in familiar surroundings will aid them in reaching that goal this year.
On Saturday, the Drillers along with six other teams will begin play in the Arkansas American Legion Junior Zone 4 Tournament at the El Dorado-Union County Recreation Complex with the top two teams moving on to the state tournament at Arkansas-Little Rock.
Five games are on tap for Saturday beginning at 10 a.m. with the opener of three first-round games.
The Drillers, who received a first-round bye, take the field at 5:30 p.m. against the winner of the 10 a.m. game between Arkadelphia and Pine Bluff.
Sheridan and Stuttgart meet at 12:30 p.m., while Benton and Texarkana will square off at 3 p.m. with the winners meeting in Saturday’s final game at 8 p.m.
The Drillers concluded their regular season Thursday night against Arkansas Pulpwood, and coach Greg Harrison said this season has been one of opportunity for his players.
“It’s been a challenging summer,” Harrison said. “A few of our local schools had extended summer, which has given us an opportunity to play some teams locally, but has challenged us as far as the personnel that we use.
“With that being said, since extended high school is now over, it does give us an opportunity to play with most of our players at full strength, but it was a great opportunity for us because many of our guys on our roster were able to get plenty of playing time, and we had an opportunity to get a look at many guys at many different positions depending on the personnel that we had for a given night. Being back to full strength, we’re excited about the opportunity of having a full pitching staff and having some players to help us out at key positions in key situations.”
El Dorado's hosting of the tournament marks the second straight year the event has been held in Union County.
A year ago, Smackover hosted the tournament, and the success from last year played a role in El Dorado getting the opportunity to host this year.
“The state commissioner, Jeral Howard, said he was really impressed with the tournament that we hosted last year in Smackover,” Harrison said. “He was blown away with the hospitality that he received from Smackover last year, and he’s heard a lot of great things about El Dorado’s high school field, even to the point where he asked us to host not only the junior tournament, but he asked us to host the Area 4 Senior Zone Tournament for AAA.
“The thing is that it would be difficult for me to host tournaments on back-to-back weekends, especially with a lot of other personal endeavors that I have going on, so it was something that I asked if we could table for next year, so he’s already discussed the opportunity of us hosting the senior zone tournament here in Union County for next year. He mentioned to me the possibility of trying to host a state tournament here, but one thing that we would need to have for a state tournament is we would need to have access to two fields. That would bring an opportunity of having 16 teams come down to Union County to play on a given five-day stretch.”
As far as the field is concerned, Harrison singled out Texarkana as a team to keep an eye on.
“We’ve had some pretty close games with Texarkana the past couple of years,” Harrison said. “We’ve won a few, they’ve won a few. They won the state tournament last year, as well as our zone tournament at Smackover, so they are definitely someone we have our eye on. They are on the other side of the bracket playing another tough team in Benton. We are two wins away from going to the junior state tournament at UALR, because this zone tournament will take the top two teams.”
Getting the chance to play at El Dorado also will give players a chance to get a taste of postseason play at home.
“El Dorado had a lot of young men that got limited reps over the high school season, so they’re going to have an opportunity of getting more reps on their high school field in a postseason atmosphere,” Harrison said. “The parents are excited about the opportunity of being able to play close to home. It gives us a chance to show what we have in South Arkansas.”
If the Drillers are to qualify for the state tournament, Harrison said his team’s pitching and defense must be solid.
“Offense will win you games, defense will win you championships, but when it comes to tournament play, having plenty of arms will definitely help you make it through four or five games,” Harrison said.