After Watson Chapel won both games against White Hall earlier this year, White Hall coach Skip Carr told his players that was the last time they would ever play Watson Chapel.
If Vegas had odds that the two rivals would meet at Baum Stadium for the Class 5A baseball title, Watson Chapel coach Chad Cope would not have put money on that scenario.
The stars aligned in just a way, though, that the two long-time rivals will travel 3 1/2 hours away to play for the title at 7 p.m. on Friday in Fayetteville.
“The thing is, these kids have played either with or against each other in Little League ball and Legion ball,” Carr said. “They’ve known each other for a long time.”
Each team was watching the other one as it clinched a spot in the state title. Watson Chapel arrived in about the third inning during White Hall’s semifinal game against Nettleton.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Carr could not recall if Watson Chapel was rooting for White Hall, but he said he does not notice a lot of who is in the crowd or what is being said during the game. Cope said his team would root for anyone in the 5A-Southeast to make the championship game.
“I would hope they would be rooting for us as well,” he said. “I think it’s great for the community and Jefferson County. People say baseball is dead here, but I would have to disagree.”
Carr and about half of his team stayed behind and watched as Watson Chapel beat Greene County Tech.
“It was great,” Carr said. “I was waiting for them to start chanting ‘SEC’ in the stands.”
Since Saturday, the excitement for the upcoming game has only grown. Carr said his players were ready to get on the field and practice on Monday.
“When you can get a bunch of teenagers out here at 8 o’clock at night and they are fired up about practice, you know things are going well,” Carr said. “They are excited.”
It is the Bulldogs’ first state-title appearance since 1980 when White Hall beat Little Rock Catholic 2-1. This will be Watson Chapel’s sixth state title appearance and first since Sylvan Hills beat the Wildcats 5-4 in 2008.
“It’s been a bit since we have been there and there is a lot of tradition here,” said Cope, who was an assistant coach on the 2008 team. “The kids are excited. All of us are working hard at it and we are ready I think.”
It was not an easy road for either team. White Hall was 14-11 going into the state tournament and lost its last five games.
Carr believed when the year began that his team has a good chance at making the title game, and that belief did not waver with this team’s rough patch.
“Our problem this year has been hitting, and not that we are striking out, but we haven’t been getting the timely hits,” he said. “We worked that solid week before the tournament, the seniors practiced in the morning and in the afternoon, and all we focused on was hitting. I think it paid off for us.”
White Hall scored seven runs against Beebe in the first-round, got a key grand slam late against Greenwood in the quarterfinals and put up 12 runs on Nettleton in the semifinal game.
Watson Chapel was 6-5 going into the Magnolia Classic, which was the turning point of the Wildcats’ season. Watson Chapel beat Magnolia, the defending Class 5A champion, in the semifinals and beat Genoa Central, the defending Class 3A champion, in the championship game there.
“I think the kids realized then that they are not bad,” Cope said. “Since then, we have lost just one game and that was to Sylvan Hills. We took off from there.”