SPRINGDALE — The top two teams in the Northwest Arkansas Senior Babe Ruth League hadn’t met this summer.

That could change if top-seeded Springdale Tyson and second-seeded Gentry both advance to the championship game of the league tournament.

The eight-team league tournament started Monday at the Tyson Sports Complex in Springdale. The semifinals and championship game will be played Tuesday after press time.

Gentry finished runnerup to league champ West Fork - which did not field a team this year - last summer and would like do better this year.

“We’d sure like to win,” said Gentry coach Jimmy Corter. “If we take care of business (we should) get tothe championship against Springdale.”

Tyson finished 17-1 and undefeated in its four-team division. Gentry (14-1-1) and Carroll County (8-6-1) won the other divisions.

Tyson played Springdale Kiwanis (5-13) Monday in its first-round game.

Depth and pitching led Tyson to the top of the league, said coach and league president David DeBoard.

“We were pretty talented and had a lot of depth,” DeBoard said. “We knew each other and knew what the expectations were coming in.

“At one point in time, I had 18 kids, and I could have swapped nine for nine and still been in pretty goodshape.”

Springdale High’s Devin Bryan and Springdale Har-Ber’s Josh Robinson and Josh Baker were among the team’s top pitchers this summer.

Fourth-seeded Pea Ridge (10-5-1) handed Tyson its only loss.

Pea Ridge played fifthseeded Rogers Zero Mountain (7-6-1) Monday.

Pea Ridge coach Randon Webb, a former Blackhawks player, said the high school team has mostly stayed intact this summer to gain experience together. Pea Ridge is improving at the plate but has been solid defensively.

“We’ve been battling defensively and in the battery, and that’s kept us in games we probably shouldn’t have won,” said Webb, a 2008 Pea Ridge grad currently playing at University of the Ozarks.

Ethan Higgins is one of the better catchers Pea Ridge has had and Ryan Roughton has been solid on the mound. Higgins, Roughton and Kasey Cooper have led the team on offense.

Pitching has also been key for Gentry, which took on seventh-seeded Elkins (9-8) Monday. Carroll Countytook on sixth-seeded Farmington (7-7) in the other 8 p.m. game Monday.

Former high school standouts Keevan Allen and Nick Brill and recent Decatur graduate Hunter Beal have led the way on the mound. Allen, a Gentry grad who pitched at Ecclesia College this spring, is the ace, and Corter said there’s not much drop off to Beal or Brill, a former Siloam Springs player now at the University of the Ozarks.

Gentry’s Josh Corter and John Sewell have had good summers. Sewell can start anywhere in the field, while Corter has been solid at catcher and as the team’s leadoff batter.

Monday's results were not yet available at press time.

Sports, Pages 10 on 06/30/2010