Jonesboro man wins Grid Picks contest

JONESBORO — Johnny Russell of Jonesboro edged Linda Turney by three points on the tiebreaker to win last week’s Grid Picks contest.
Russell and Turney each missed three games — Wyoming’s win over Tennessee, UTEP’s victory over Louisiana-Lafayette and Iowa’s upset of Penn State. Russell missed his tiebreaker by three points, choosing Oklahoma to win by 35. The Sooners beat Texas A&M by 38. Turney picked Marked Tree to beat Rector by 42, and the Indians won by 36.
Russell can pick up his prize at The Sun, 518 Carson St., after 3 p.m. on Friday.

Oring, Pike named athletes of the week

Okie Oring of Wynne and Jenna Pike of Buffalo Island Central have been named The Jonesboro Sun/Crown Trophy Athletes of the Week for Nov. 2-8.
Oring ran for 214 yards, 141 after halftime, and scored three touchdowns and a 2-point conversion to power Wynne past Nettleton 43-26 in 5A-East conference football on Friday. The victory gave the Yellowjackets (3-7) their third straight win and an unlikely spot in this week’s state playoffs.
Pike scored 26 points in Buffalo Island Central’s 67-54 senior girls’ basketball win over Armorel on Monday night, then added 16 points in the Lady Mustangs’ 57-53 win over Bay on Thursday.

Lyon pulls upset in TranSouth tourney

JACKSON, Tenn. — The Lyon College Pipers had quite a day in the TranSouth Conference Volleyball Tournament on Monday.
The Pipers (19-10) picked up two wins on the initial day of play on Monday, a 3-1 victory over No. 5 seed Bethel College and a monumental upset of top-seeded Freed-Hardeman. Lyon’s two wins allowed the squad to clinch a berth in the tournament semifinals. Coach Ray Green’s Pipers play No. 2 seed Union University at 11:30 this morning.
Freed-Hardeman (32-4) had not lost a regular-season conference match all season and was the likely favorite to steamroll the field. In fact, Lyon hadn’t won a match against FHU since Nov. 3, 2003.
But bolstered by junior outside hitter Lauren Castleberry, junior middle hitter Katie Beineke and sophomore middle hitter Meghann LaBorn, the Pipers rallied from a 2-1 deficit to pull off the 25-20, 22-25, 17-25, 25-16, 15-6 shocker.
Castleberry had a match-high 16 kills and added three blocks, Beineke pitched in 15 kills and two blocks and LaBorn earned six kills and five blocks in the upset. Setter Julie Arnold accounted for 46 assists, Ashley Daniel picked up an additional eight kills and junior libero Ann Sullivan had a team-high 19 digs in a total team effort.
Lyon earned the second-round matchup with Freed-Hardeman by dumping Bethel 25-22, 23-25, 25-18, 25-14 in the first round.
Beineke led the Pipers in that match with 14 kills, sophomore Ashley Daniel had 13 kills and LaBorn had nine. Arnold pitched in 43 assists and Sullivan had 19 digs.

Former Newport standout earns honor

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — After having his best collegiate game, Ouachita Baptist University wide receiver Julius Pruitt was tabbed Monday the Gulf South Conference Player of the Week.
The senior native of Newport earned his first-ever honor after leading Ouachita to a 43-36 victory over rival Henderson State in the 82nd meeting of the Coleman Dairy Battle of the Ravine. Pruitt caught 10 passes for an Ouachita single-game record 250 yards and career-high four touchdowns.
Ouachita entered the fourth quarter trailing 21-16, but took over in the final frame with 27 points. Pruitt was a huge part of the comeback, collecting three touchdown grabs in the game’s final 12:10, including scores of 15, 64 and 30 yards. His 30-yard reception was No. 5 on ESPN’s Top 10 Plays of the Day on Thursday night.
The Tigers concluded their best season since 1985 with a 7-3 record.

Southside sweeps WBC’s top seeds

WALNUT RIDGE — The boys’ and girls’ basketball teams from Southside High School near Batesville are top seeds for the Williams Baptist College Invitational Tournament.
The 49th annual tourney runs from Nov. 29-Dec. 6 in WBC’s Southerland-Mabee Center.
On the boys’ side, Southside is picked as the favorite, followed by Hoxie, Corning and Pocahontas with the 2-4 seeds. Pocahontas won the tournament last year.
In the girls’ bracket, Southside is favored to defend the WBC tournament title it won in 2007, while last year’s runner-up, Pocahontas, is seeded second. MARMADUKE draws the No. 3 seed, and Viola is seeded fourth.
Teams are seeded by a vote of the tournament coaches.

‘Boys of Summer’ pitcher Preacher Roe dies

NEW YORK (AP) — Preacher Roe, who began pitching in the Ozarks and became a 4-time All-Star as a revered member of “The Boys of Summer” in Brooklyn, has died.
Roe died Sunday in West Plains, Mo., said the funeral home handling the arrangements. His own Web site listed his age as 92 — other reference materials differed by a year or two.
Roe went 127-84 in a 12-year career with the Dodgers, Pittsburgh and St. Louis. But it was in Brooklyn, where he played alongside the likes of Pee Wee Reese, Jackie Robinson, Gil Hodges, Ralph Branca and others at Ebbets Field, where he enjoyed his greatest success and acclaim.
Though those Dodgers teams of the 1940s and 1950s won only one World Series — Roe was part of three teams that lost to the New York Yankees — they became a beloved part of the borough. And Roe, a skinny left-hander and mathematics teacher from Ash Flat, was among the fan favorites in the big city.
“He enjoyed playing the role of a country bumpkin, but he wasn’t one,” Branca recalled by phone Monday night. “He was real smart, and real crafty on the mound.
“He threw two pitches, a slider and his ‘Beech-Nut slider.’ Beech-Nut was a gum we all chewed back then. He knew how to use that juice to get that ball all wet.”
After retiring, Roe admitted in a Sports Illustrated story that he had benefited for years by throwing a spitball.
Like his age and his best pitch, it was slippery trying to pin down exactly how Elwin Charles Roe got his nickname. According to one family story, he dubbed himself “Preacher” at a young age because he admired a local preacher.
Branca remembered it differently.
“We all called him ‘Preacher’ because he could talk your ear off,” he said. “If there was no one around, he would talk to the wall.”
Roe led the NL in strikeouts in 1945 with Pittsburgh. He posted his best season in 1951, going 22-3 for the Dodgers — he did not, however, start in the 3-game pennant playoff with the New York Giants, capped by Bobby Thomson’s famous home run.
Roe helped put the Dodgers into the World Series in 1949, 1952 and 1953. He started a game in each of those matchups with the Yankees, going 2-1 and completing all three outings.
Known for his sharp control, Roe finished with a career 3.43 ERA and pitched 101 complete games.
Roe made his big league debut with St. Louis in 1938 and pitched only once for the Cardinals. He spent the next several years in the minors and returned to the majors with Pittsburgh in 1944.
Roe’s path stalled for a few years following a brawl back home in Arkansas. He was coaching a girls’ high school basketball team in Hardy, got into a dispute with a referee and, according to local stories, wound up with a fractured skull.
“He wouldn’t fly with us,” Branca said. “It made his head hurt. He always took the train.”
The Pirates traded Roe, infielder Billy Cox and reserve Gene Mauch to Brooklyn for former star outfielder Dixie Walker and two other players after the 1947 season.
Roe retired after the 1953 season and owned a grocery store in West Plains. He often attended the Dodgers’ adult baseball camps at Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Fla.