LOCAL SPORTS IN BRIEF
BY SPORTS EDITOR MITCH LUCAS
TENNIS

Several JV players do well in district tourney

Sixteen of 22 Kilgore High School junior varsity tennis players earned top-three finishes on Tuesday in the District 12-4A junior varsity tennis tournament, played in Jacksonville, and Kilgore finished first as a team with 100 points.

Coach Jason Maroney said he was very pleased.

"The JV had a very good year, and I was very happy that their hard work over the year paid off for them in the district tournament," Maroney said. "Now it is time for them to hit the offseason and start preparing for next fall's season. There are only three seniors this year, so I know the JV kids will be working hard trying to improve so they can claim one of those positions."

Kilgore's varsity is nearing its own district tournament, hoping to have several players qualify for regionals. There is one bit of business left, however: a tri-match here Thursday against Grace and Sulphur Springs. KHS will play Sulphur Springs at 3:10, and a KHS-Grace matchup will follow.

In boys doubles play in the JV district tourney, Jeremy Berryhill and Chance Grantham brought home first place for Kilgore. They beat Whitehouse's team of Weldon and O'Leary, 6-1, 6-4, and in the finals, beat the Nacogdoches team of Maness and Cline, 6-1, 6-1.

Kilgore's Naomi Worden and Courtney Foxworth won first place in the girls doubles division. They defeated Henderson's Davila-Price team, 6-0, 6-2, and beat their own teammates, Shawna Bass and Caitlind Trowbridge, in the finals, 0-6, 6-4, 8-6. Bass and Trowbridge beat one set of teammates (they had a 6-2, 4-6, 7-4 win over Allison Guthrie and Lynsey Howell) before losing to Worden and Foxworth. Guthrie and Howell finished third, beating Davila and Price, 6-3, 6-2.

In mixed doubles play, Kilgore's Jose Tapia and Shivani Patel won first, beating Whitehouse's Hill and Woods, 6-2, 6-1, and getting by their own teammates - Brian Park and Kaylea Clower - 7-6 (7-5), 6-3. Park and Clower beat Nac's Hughes and Sayan, 6-3, 6-2.

For Kilgore in singles play, Trent Raby took third in boys. He lost to Nac's Chris Fajardo in the semis, but beat Nac's Wesley Neely, 2-6, 6-2, 7-3 in the consolation final. Chelsey Cox, who won the girls JV singles division at Corsicana over the weekend, claimed 12-4A girls singles first place. She beat two teammates, Zonera Javed and Linsey Cardoso, to do so - she beat Javed, 6-2, 6-1, and Cardoso, 6-4, 6-3. Cardoso beat Monte Broussard, also of KHS, 4-6, 6-3, 7-4, in the semis. In the third-place matchup, Broussard beat Javed, 6-4, 6-1.

GOLF

Girls finish first day of district

The Kilgore High School girls golf team finished the first day of the District 12-4A championship tournament, being played at Crooked Hollow in Greenwood, La.

Kilgore's Courtney Hodgkins is leading the chase, and the race for the medalist. She's in front of all golfers with an 84 after the first round. "She really played solid," coach Jimmy Williams said. "She just missed one fairway all day long. She played really steady - just had one double (bogey), but a couple of birdies offset that."

Hodgkins has a one-stroke lead over Pine Tree's Anna Brooks, and is four shots in front of Hallsville's Sara Bradshaw.

Courtney Plaisance shot a 108 for Kilgore, and Shelby Elder a 118. "Shelby is a firstyear player and has really come a long way."

The second round of play is scheduled for Monday at Lakeside Country Club in Marshall.

The KHS boys golfers played their first round earlier this week (as chronicled in yesterday's News Herald sports section) and are in fourth place, one shot out of third and seven shots out of second. It was played at Pine Dunes Golf Club in Frankston. The second round will be played Tuesday at Crooked Hollow.

SOFTBALL

KHS booster meeting Monday

The Kilgore High School softball booster club will meet Monday at 6 p.m. at the locker room at Stream-Flo Field, just beside Driller Park, where the Lady Bulldogs play their games. The meeting is open to anyone interested in supporting KHS softball.

For information, contact Lee Ann Warren at (903) 985-0681, or Frank Baggett Jr. at (903) 987-1463.

Kilgore Force finishes second

The Kilgore Force, an under-14 softball team based here, finished second in the Spring Frenzy, a 10-team tournament played at the Kilgore Youth Sports Complex on Highway 135 last weekend.

The Force played five games in the tournament, which was shortened just a bit due to stormy weather Saturday afternoon. The Force only allowed 10 runs in the tournament.

The team is made up of Blair Ware, Cheyenne Andrews, Mary Mays, Taylor Smith, Heather Hanks, Jenae Baggett, Peyton Head, Shelby Linton, Breeze Henson and Andrea Butler, and is coached by Frank Baggett Jr.

The girls played teams from Woden (the Woden Wild, beating them twice), Mineola (the Mineola Titans), Nacogdoches (the East Texas Angels) and Whitehouse (the Heat Wave, who won the tournament).

Ware pitched most of the games for Kilgore, and finished with 19 strikeouts. At the plate, she had three singles and a home run, and also had three stolen bases.

Also for Kilgore, Mays had four singles, 2 RBI and two stolen bases; Head had a triple, two singles, a double, 4 RBI and two stolen bases; Baggett had a single, a triple, 4 RBI and two stolen bases; Smith had two singles, a double, a triple, a stolen base and 4 RBI; Hanks had a single, two doubles, and 2 RBI; Linton had a double and an RBI; Henson had a single, a triple and 2 RBI; and Andrews and Butler each had a single.

The Force will be in action again here on April 12, a tournament that will feature under 10, under-12 and under-14 teams. Twenty-two teams are already signed up for the tournament, with registration time remaining. It is sanctioned by the United States Fastpitch Association (USFA).