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SUNDAY, MARCH 22, 2020
THREE RIVERS EDITION/RIVER VALLEY & OZARK EDITION OF THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE DIAMOND ROUNDUP
9SS
In the end, Cabot eked out the 5-3 victory.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” Neal said. “The first thing I did was cry and hug my team- mates. It took a while for it to really set in that we had really done it. It was not in our favor at all.”
After the big win, Neal focused on mak- ing a college decision. Neal was very famil- iar with NCAA Division II program at the University of Arkansas at Monticello after attending camps there. Longtime legendary coach Alvy Early had succumbed to cancer in June 2018, but Neal was still very interested in the program, even though some thought she was too talented to play at a smaller school.
“A lot of people were asking me why I didn’t play D-I and saying that I was too good to play at UAM,” she said. “It was a really hard decision, but I wanted to go to a smaller school and make a name for myself. I wanted to start as a freshman. I didn’t want to go D-I
Grace Neal led the Lady Panthers by hitting .474 with a school-record 12 home runs last season, in which Cabot won its first state softball title. Neal was walked 12 times and struck out just 3 times in 2019.
and sit the bench like a bunch of freshmen do. UAM just felt like home to me.
“I have gone to Cabot my whole life, and it is such a big district, and I was just ready to make it a little bit smaller and more like home.”
New Cotton Blossoms coach Kyle Lem, a former UAM assistant under Early, is a friend of Cope’s and thinks Neal will fit in well on the team, which finished 25-27 in 2019.
“I think I can go in and help them right away,” Neal said.
But before she heads to Monticello, she has a state title to defend. With a core group of starters returning, the Lady Panthers will be a favorite to repeat their win.
“I have a really good feeling we can win it again,” she said. “It’s going to take a lot of hard work. Everybody’s coming for us, and we have a target on our back, and hopefully, we can show everyone that wasn’t a fluke. We were a real team playing together, playing our hearts out.”
And the state-title defense has only made for longer days for Cope, which he doesn’t mind.
“[Neal] is a leader for the younger ones to see what it takes,” Cope said. “We have won since she’s been here.”
Here, three things remain constant: the land,
the family who farms it and the local co-op
that helps keep it profitable.
5406 Highway 70 East P.O. Box 240 Lonoke, AR 72086 501-676-3130 870-552-7538
lonokecountycooperative.com
Proud Supporters of Bison and Jackrabbits