RISON - While Rison Coach Josh Smeltzer will be getting married soon and leaving the Wildcat baseball program at the end of the school year to become head baseball coach at his high school alma mater, Magnet Cove, he said is not ready nor is he expecting this current baseball season to end anytime soon.
Smeltzer and his 'Cats used a late season surge to earn the no. 4 seed from the 8-2A conference and qualify for the Class 2A South Region Baseball Tournament to be held this week at Horatio.
Rison, 12-9, will play the Dierks Outlaws, the no. 1 seed from the 7-2A conference, in the first round of the regional tournamebnt at 3 p.m. Thursday. A victory advances the Wildcats to the regional semifinals and gives them an automatic berth to the Class 2A State Tournament next week at Greenland.
Dierks went into last week's 72A District Tournament as the no. 4 seed in the tournament. However, the Outlaws surprised the regular season champion Horatio, 2-0, in the semifinals, and then beat Murfreesboro, 11-4, in the championship game to earn the 7-2A's top seed. Dierks had lost to both teams during the regular season.
The Outlaws are 13-5 overall, and are carrying a six-game win streak into the regional tournament.
Rison, on the other hand, is coming off a late-season surge that saw the 'Cats win five of their final seven games. The only losses during that span were to top-ranked Woodlawn and at Class 5A El Dorado.
"I feel really good," Smeltzer said Tuesday about his Wildcats' chances against the Outlaws this week.
"I feel like we're the second best team in the (8-2A) conference," he said.
And that assessment has merit based on recent results.
After dropping a 7-6 heartbreaker to Fordcye in extra innings on April 10, Rison was sitting at 2-5 in conference play and needed a turnaround to qualify for post-season play.
And the Wildcats did just that, hammering Junction City 15-5...
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