PALESTINE - The Woodlawn Bears will be pursuing their fourth consecutive state baseball championship this weekend when they face the Ouachita Warriors in the Class 2A state finals at 4 p.m. Saturday at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.Meanwhile, the Rison Lady Wildcats and Woodlawn Lady Bears fell short in their bids to advance to the Class 2A state soft ball finals. Magnet Cove hit a a two-out homerun in the top of the seventh to edge the Lady Wildcats, 2-1, in the state quarterfinals on Friday while the Lady Bears fell to Riverside, 5-0, in the semi finals on Saturday. (See sto ries page 8) The Bears (34-1) and War riors (20-11) are quite famil iar with one another having played twice this year in 8-2A conference play. Woodlawn won both games: 9-6 at home on April 23 and 7-3 at Oua chita on March 29. Woodlawn won the 8-2A championship this year with a 12-0 record while Ouachita was second at 10-2. The Bears, the no. 1 seed from the South Region, qualified for the state championship game by knocking off Cedar Ridge 8-5 on Saturday in the late semifinal game at Palestine on Saturday in the late semifinal game at Palestine-Wheatley High School. Woodlawn defeated Mountainburg, 11-2, in the first round of the state tournament on Thursday before edging Riverside, 1-0, in the quarterfinals on Friday.The Warriors, the no. 3 seed from the South, beat Rector 8-4 in the early semifinal game. Ouachita opened the state tournament with a 6-0 shutout of Greenland on Thursday before beating McCrory, 4-1, in the quarterfinals on Friday.Taking out the 2020 season that was canceled due to the COVID pandemic, this will be the Bears' eighth consecutive appearance in the state championship game, and the 13th overall since 2007.Over that span, Woodlawn has gone 9-3 in title games. The Bears have won the past three state championship, defeating Palestine-Wheatley 3-2 for the 2023 crown; knocking off Bigelow 7-2 for the 2022 championship; and bea...
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