By: Zac Bottoms
Arkansas Scouting Director

The 5A State Championship Game is Saturday May 21^st between Sylvan Hills High School and Magnolia High School. Sylvan Hills will be looking for their schools 8^th state title and first since 2008. Magnolia will be looking to win their schools 2^nd state title, their last state title was in 2011.

Sylvan Hills: A roster that receives large contributions from their sophomores and junior classes. On the mound they have a deep pitching rotation, using 2017 RHP River Hunt, 2018 RHP Ryan Lumpkin, 2018 Nick Farkouri and 2016 MIF/RHP Mackenzie Seats. Offensively Seats and Farkouri are a big part of their success along with 2017 Utility player Zach Douglas. Defensively they are led by 2017 MIF Michael Coven, the junior short stop has been steady all year.

Magnolia: The four seed from the 5A South that swung their way to the state championship. Two key hitters in their lineup will be 2017 MIF Parker Ribble and 2017 INF/RHP Matthew Goodheart. Two of the more dominant hitters in the 2017 class provide a lot of offense for the Panthers. Goodheart will also pitch, the 6-foot right hander will pound both sides of the plate with a fastball 80-82 mph and mix in a change up and curveball that he can locate in any count.

Road to Baum

Sylvan Hills 8	Farmington 4
Sylvan Hills 5	Valley View 3
Sylvan Hills 6	Watson Chapel 1
Magnolia 7	Greene Co Tech 1
Magnolia 7	Beebe 2
Magnolia 10	White Hall 4

 

Pick

Sylvan Hills has been steady all year. I look for their offense to be too deep and find a way to score enough to win. Magnolia is dangerous scoring 24 runs in their last 3 games, so they’ll have a punchers chance, but I am giving Sylvan Hills the slight edge.

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