MURFREESBORO - Logan Clark threw a three-hitter and the Woodlawn Bears capitalized on 19 free bases as they cruised by the Parkers Chapel Trojans, 12-2, to win the Class 2A Region 4 championship Saturday at Murfreesboro.By virtue of the win, Woodlawn will take Region 4’s no. 1 seed into this week’s Class 2A State Tournament at Palestine-Wheatley High School. The Bears (25-6) will face the Sloane-Hendrix Greyounds (16-7), the no. 4 seed from Region 2, at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Forrest City Sports Complex.Should Woodlawn win Thursday, it will advance to the state quarterfinals to face the Life Way Christian-Bigelow winner at 10 a.m. Friday at Palestine-Wheatley High School.Saturday’s victory over the Trojans marked the Bears’ fourth consecutive regional championship and the program’s 14th since 2001.The Bears are riding a late season surge heading into the state tournament. Woodlawn fell to 7-4 on March 27 after losing back-to-back games to Dale, Okla., and DeQueen in the Robinson Tournament in Little Rock. Since then, the Bears have gone 18-2 with those two losses being a 7-3 set back at Ouachita and a 6-5 decision in nine innings at Class 5A Sheridan.Parkers Chapel, which fell to 11-15 overall after Saturday’s loss, was the surprise team of the Region 4 Tournament. The Trojans, the no. 4 seed from the 8-2A, upset up the 7-2A’s top seed Murfreesboro (22-4), the host team, in the opening round last Thursday. They followed that with a surprising 5-1 win over Junction City, the no. 2 seed from the 8-2A, in the regional semifinals on Friday.But that run forced the Trojans to use a lot of their arms as they struggled to find the strike zone early and often against the Bears.With two out in the botom of the first, Parkers Chapel walked the next three batters and the Bears then got a run off a bases-loaded balk to go up 1-0.The Trojans tied it with Caleb Childers’ solo homerun to start the second innin...
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