Magnolia has one more battle and it will come Saturday afternoon with the Class 5A State Championship game.
It will be the last fight of a nearly four-month baseball war. Bobby Beeson’s Panthers will face off against the Vilonia Eagles at Baum Stadium on the University of Arkansas campus.
War can be defined as a large scale event comprising of a number of battles, which are smaller combats.
Winning enough battles usually results in a war victory. If the Panthers can take this last battle, they will win the war.
The Panthers’ battles are not the games themselves. They involve every pitch, throw and catch during that game. Winning individual battles have led to team success for Magnolia.
Anyone who has watched the team on the diamond, has surely heard Coach Beeson repeatedly challenging individual Panthers to “win the battle.”
Though the bigger picture is a game victory, he verbally wants his pitchers, hitters and others to win personal battles they are facing at the moment. The coach believes individual efforts at the plate, on the mound, in the field and on base are battles. I’m certain he’s even telling athletes in the dugout to “win the battle.”
At the plate with two strikes, a hitter can’t help but her those three words coming from the third-base coach’s box. He may strike out, but Beeson applauds the effort when he “battles” at the plate. A good at-bat effort that ends in a strikeout after several pitches is still a way of winning the battle.
Those on the mound can hear the coach saying the same thing from the dugout. He wants strikes, because infielders and outfielders have also been challenged to win battles when the ball is in play.
Winning the individual battles is why Magnolia has one of the best team batting averages and pitching records in the state. They also don't make many fielding and throwing mistakes.
That’s why they have an impressive 27-1 season record and riding an 18-game winning streak.
Again, this war is nearly over, but there’s one more major battle remaining.
If the Panthers can continue winning their individual skirmishes, they should be successful one more time.
The two No. 1-seeds will battle for the title at 12:30 p.m. in Fayetteville.
Vilonia (24-11) has beaten Beebe (Magnolia’s first-round state tournament opponent) three times this season and knocked off Greenbriar (Magnolia’s semifinal opponent) twice. They defeated White Hall in the state tournament.
The battle-tested Panthers have won six games by one run and three by two runs. Two of those one-run victories came in the district tournament, with one against White Hall.
Records, common opponents and other things can be thrown out the window. Saturday’s final showdown is expected to be a tough one.
Several Magnolia fans have already indicated they will be in the stands at Baum Stadium and it’s a sure bet Beeson will again sound out his “win the battle” command.
The Panthers are looking to become back-to-back state champions, something the baseball program has never done. This is only their fifth appearance in the championship game, but claimed titles in 2011 and 2016.
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Congratulations also go out to the Taylor Tigers and Lady Tigers, who seems to always be playing during state championship weekend.
Both will compete in the Class 1A State Tournament in Fayetteville, with the Tigers playing at 5:30 p.m. today against Woodlawn. The Lady Tigers will battle Scranton at 3 p.m. Saturday.
The Lady Tigers (29-4) has the best record in Class 1A softball and is the second-seed from Region 5, while Scranton (25-7) is the top-seed from Region 4. They will meet at Lady Razorbacks’ Bogle Park.
Robby Frizzell’s Tigers (25-6) will look for ways to knock off a red-hot Woodlawn team (32-1) that has won 28 consecutive games.
Woodlawn’s only loss was a 5-2 setback to Class 7A Springdale in early March. Both teams are from Region 5 and met in that title game last week, where the Tigers loss 13-1 to the Bears.
Taylor also lost to Magnolia and Malvern, the only team to beat the Panthers this season.
(Chris Gilliam is Sports Editor at the Banner-News. Email him at [email protected]).