DE QUEEN, Ark. (5/8/25) – The Warren Lumberjacks baseball team clinched a spot in the 4A State Tournament with a 6-2 victory over De Queen to open the 4A-4 Regional Thursday afternoon in De Queen.
By Dennen Cuthbertson, SRN Baseball Contributor
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The Lumberjacks improve to 17-6 on the season and will now play the top seed from 4A-7 Arkadelphia, who defeated Hamburg 10-0 to open regional play. The win for the Jacks clinches back-to-back appearances in the state tournament for the first time since the team went to three straight from 2004-2006. Regional host De Queen finishes 17-6.
The first two innings were scoreless with Warren turning 4-6-3 double plays to end both thanks to quick feeds from second baseman Tucker McDiarmid and strong throws by shortstop Parker O’Neal. The Leopards struck first in the third inning though when a run came around on an error. The Orange and Black quickly tied the game in the bottom half when an attempted steal of home by AJ Jordan caused a balk after a discussion by the umpires.
Warren’s Aceen Jurado put the pressure on De Queen in the fourth inning when he legged out an infield single with one gone and advanced to second on a soft groundout to the shortstop. Senior Kolby Pope stepped to the plate and singled to center field to score Jurado to make it 2-1. The Jacks added another in the fifth frame when Jude Cathey singled home Nathan Spears, who led off the inning with a base hit up the middle.
The Leopards would not go down without a fight as a soft fly ball fell with one out after a minor collision by Nathan Spears and O’Neal for a two-bagger. A single to right field followed to score the run to get De Queen back within 3-2. A walk put another runner on base, but Pope found a way out of the jam with a groundout and popout.
The Lumberjacks received a double by Pope to lead off the bottom of the sixth with the help of a bad route in left field, then another misplay by the Leopards occurred when they tried to get Pope out at third on a groundball to short. Nathan Spears then hit a line drive to center field that was dropped, but should have been a sacrifice fly, to make the score 4-2. Hayden Cathey singled to load the bases before a grounder to third base by Ryan Spears. De Queen got a force out at second with one run scoring, but a bad throw on the double-play attempt allowed another run to score to push Warren’s lead to 6-2.
The insurance runs were great to have, but it turned out that Pope didn’t need them. He retired the first two batters of the inning on the first pitch before allowing a single. However, the next batter hit a groundball to second base with McDiarmid flipping the ball to first baseman Bryson Harris for the final out of the game.
Pope pitched a complete game and allowed the two runs (one earned) on four hits with four strikeouts with four walks. Pope also went 2-for-3 at the plate with a double, RBI, and run scored. Jude Cathey was the only other Lumberjack with two hits including one double and one RBI.
Warren will play Arkadelphia tomorrow (Friday, May 9) in the second round of the Regional Tournament. First pitch from De Queen is set for 12 p.m.
