Arkansas Online

American Legion

PAUL BOYD

Fort Smith Sportsman open defense of their AAA American Legion baseball state championship today in the 10-team tournament at Conway.

Coach Trey Prieur said his Fort Smith Sportsman appear ready to make a run to claim back-to-back AAA American Legion baseball state titles.

The Sportsman (18-11) open defense of their state title at 12:30 p.m. today in the 10-team tournament on the University of Central Arkansas campus.

“We’ve lost our last couple ballgames, but I haven’t really been that concerned about the outcome because I think the process of getting some guys to figure out what it’s gonna take has become evident now,” Prieur said. “I’m really looking forward to this state tournament and putting this team out on the field and seeing what we can do.”

Four players return from last year’s state title team including corner infielder Dakota Peters, who has been swinging a hot bat lately after a slow start. That’s a great thing for the Sportsman’s state title chances, Prieur said.

“We have had peaks and valleys with our offense this year,” Prieur said. “Right now, the guys we want are swinging it well. Dakota, we’ll need him to help carry us. I think we’re starting to put some things together offensively where we can be tough one through nine in the lineup.”

The Sportsman may not have a clear ace on the pitching staff, but they have several arms capable of giving them a chance for success, Prieur said.

“Logan Taylor from Alma has pitched well and kept us in a lot of ballgames,’ Prieur said. “He keeps teams off-balance. Steffan Fak from Northside has had some hard luck, but we feel like his stuff is good. Jaxon McItyre is another from Sallisaw that has good velocity.”

Catcher Tanner Callahan is another of the Sportsman with championship experience. In addition to helping the Sportsman claim a title, he helped Van Buren also win a high school state championship in the spring. Kent Carlisle and Logan Bolin, another catcher from Sallisaw, also were part of the Sportsman’s title run last season.

Those players are excited about the opportunity to defend their title, Prieur said. But he also reminded them it will be far from easy.

“I think they think about it [defending the title], I know a couple of them do,” Prieur said. “I reminded them we’ll have a target on our backs.

“We look forward to meeting that challenge and just go out there and compete.”

Prieur also loves the fact that seven other players have grown up in the Sportsman program and understand the standards that are expected. The Sportsman’s junior Legion team finished third in the state tournament earlier this week.

“It’s really good to see guys working through the process and seeing their growth,” Prieur said.

Prieur has only seen four of the other nine teams in the bracket this season, so he’s been forced to call other coaches for information on teams from other parts of the state.

“We’ve seen Russellville, Texarkana, Bryant and Sheridan,” Prieur said. “It’s a classic year where I think everybody’s looking at Bryant. But we open with El Dorado and then if we were fortunate enough to win we would see Batesville — both teams we don’t know much about.

“We’ll just have to go out and try to perform to the best of our ability.”

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2021-07-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-07-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://edition.arkansasonline.com/article/282802129367059

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