Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Prescott's 1998 Baseball Team Posted Best Record In School History (cont)

heir minds to. Nolen is expected to be a benefit on the pitching staff.

There are some talented sophomores on the squad this year, Crow said, which bodes well for the team's future. Three of this year's crop could start somewhere.

Rodney Walker, in right, has a good glove but needs to work on his hitting.

Ralph Marlow, at short, has a strong arm, good glove and good bat.

Josh Bullock, catcher, could be a help as pitcher and is a hard worker.

Other sophomores, he said, show potential and promise, but lack consistency.

Chad Hughes, who could play in left, Brady Jordan, catcher, and Ben Ratcliff, short, show talent, but not consistency.

Other sophomores include: Bryan Joseph, Brandon Bates, Amos Foreman and Dennis Hopson. Crow said they have been improving with each practice.

"We hope to get juniors Fred Hopsion, Andrew Fellows and sophomore Mark Jones, along with junior Brad Harris to join the team when basketball season is over."

At this time, though, there are seven seniors, three juniors and 10 sophomores working with the team. Hopefully, he said, the team will pick up three juniors and another sophomore when the roundball season concludes.

"This is the youngest and most inexperienced team I have ever coached," Crow said.

"Of the seven seniors, only four played last year. One played in '97 and one hasn't played since Little League. One has never played before."

Only three members of the '99 crew have played varsity ball before. "We need what few seniors we have to step up and show some leadership for the team," he added.

The goal, Crow said, is to take one game at a time, improving each time out and let winning take care of itself.

"I believe this team will continue to get better," he said, "surprise some teams and have a better year than some people expect us to have.

"We need unselfish players and support from the team in order to be successful.

"I don't know what to expect from this team. We'll try to get pitching and defense to keep games close and find some way to score runs and win.

"We expect to be competitive and give fans something exciting to watch. We can't replace as much experience and ability we lost all at once. Hopefully we'll be a lot better by the end of the year than we are now."

Once again, he said, De Queen looks to be the favorite in the district. The Leopards were district champs last season, finished fifth in Class AAA and bring back the nucleus of the team.

Fordyce managed to beat De Queen in the regional finals and finished third in the AAA. The Redbugs also bring back most of the players from the '98 squad.

Nashville, the district runnerup, will also have most of its starters coming back.

Fouke should be much improved from '98, and will contend for the title or could pull off an upset.

Mena's Bearcats are the new kids on the block. The 'Cats have a rich baseball tradition and will be hard to beat.

Bismarck and Fountain Lake fielded young teams last year and will have more experience this season. They could be the surprise teams in the division.

Prescott's non-conference slate is no pushover either. They will tangle with Gurdon and the Go-Devils always field a solid team. They will be returning quite a bit of experience, Crow said.

County rival Nevada was young last season and could be a lot better this year.

Blevins is picked to contend for their district championship. The Hornets return eight starters from last year.

Hope fields a solid team annually and the class AAAA team could easily be a contender for its district title.

Four teams will be in the second annual Wolves Baseball Classic this year. This is a round-robin tourney with Gurdon, Blevins, Nevada and Prescott playing each other.

The classic is scheduled for March 8-9 and 11.

The top two teams after three games will receive trophies. In case of a tie, the head-to-head games will be used as the tiebreaker.

Weather permitting, the season will begin Thursday, Feb. 25 with the Wolves making the trip to Gurdon. Game time is set for 4 p.m.