Arkansas Valley Round Up by Randy Robinson

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Arkansas Valley Round Up by Randy Robinson

Week 3 of sports in the Arkansas Valley is in the books. With the postseason picture in softball starting to take shape, league play in volleyball is smack dab in the middle and football teams preparing for their league season. Let’s look at the last week…

Starting with the softball side of things, the La Junta Lady Tigers finished the week at .500 with a 3-3 record. Starting on Tuesday they welcomed the Woodland Park Panthers to Tippy Martinez Field. La Junta got off to a fast start as they would answer Woodland Park’s three runs in the top of the 1^st with 5 of their own in the bottom. Neither team would score until the 4^th when La Junta would explode for 10 runs to take the run rule victory 15-3.

The Lady Tigers would face another league opponent in Wiley on Thursday, in a good battle the score was 2-1 in favor of Wiley after the 1^st inning. Just like Tuesday, no one would score again until the 4^th inning. Wiley would plate one run in the bottom of the inning. The Tigers wouldn’t get another run across until the 6^th when they scored three runs, but the rally was too late as the Panthers would hold them off in the 7^th to take the win 5-3.

La Junta would participate in the Pueblo County Tournament over the weekend and would go 2-2. On Friday they would take on Pueblo County and fall 6-2. The afternoon saw the Tigers taking on the Red-Tailed Hawks from Cheyenne Mountain and fall 11-3.

Saturday was a better day for the Lady Tigers as they defeated Palmer by a score of 18-0 and wrap it up with a victory over Sand Creek 15-0.

Rocky Ford would finish the week at 4-1, they started the week on the road in Limon to take on the struggling Badgers. A slow start for the Meloneers would have them down 2-1 after one inning but the defense would step up and not allow another run to cross for Limon, after scoring in four of the last six innings the Meloneers would win 12-2.

Rocky Ford would travel up to Brush over the weekend to compete in the Brush Tournament going 3-1. Friday saw the Meloneers taking care of Burlington 15-0 and Brush 11-4. Saturday saw the Meloneers go 1-1 with a close loss to Sterling 8-5, they would wrap the tournament up with a 4-2 win over Fort Lupton.

Rocky Ford and La Junta will matchup next week in Rocky Ford.

Volleyball was full of action this last week. On Tuesday, the rivalry between La Junta and Lamar was renewed as the Thunder came into Tiger Gym and swept the Tigers 3-0 (25-19, 25-8, 25-22). Crowley County would fall to Holly in three straight on Tuesday (25-23, 25-18, 25-17). Fowler would sweep Rocky Ford (25-17, 25-16, 25-17).

Thursday saw more rivalry games, in 1A La Veta would sweep Manzanola (25-9, 25-3, 25-18) and Cheraw would sweep South Baca (25-13, 25-22, 25-22). Santa Fe League action highlighted the Thursday schedule, Crowley County would fall to Las Animas 3-1 (25-7, 21-25, 25-17, 25-21) and the rivalry between Swink and Rocky Ford was again brought to life, with the Lions getting the sweep (25-18, 25-18, 25-5).

Friday’s volleyball schedule saw a 1A battle between Manzanola and Miami-Yoder and La Junta would participate in the Jefferson Academy Tournament. Manzanola would fall to the Buffaloes of Miami-Yoder 3-1 (26-24, 24-26, 25-19, 25-18). La Junta would go 1-1 in the first day of the Jefferson Academy Tournament, falling to Forge Christian 2-1 (21-25, 25-7, 15-11) and taking down Monte Vista 2-1 (20-25, 25-17, 15-6).

Saturday saw a mixture of non-conference and league matchups. Starting in 1A Cheraw would sweep Evangelical Christian to remain undefeated on the year at 7-0 (25-17, 25-12, 25-17). 2A saw two Santa Fe League matchups and a non-conference contest. In the Santa Fe League Fowler would sweep Crowley County (25-14, 25-10, 25-9) and Rye would sweep Las Animas (25-17, 25-16, 25-13). Rocky Ford would pick up their first win of the year with a five-set win against Thomas MacLaren (25-14, 22-25, 25-14, 21-25, 15-12). La Junta ended the Jefferson Academy Tournament with a win against Tri-Peaks League foe Manitou Springs in three sets (27-25, 25-27, 16-14).

It was another rough week for football teams in the Arkansas Valley as they went a combined 1-6. Friday Night Lights action saw Miami-Yoder take down Manzanola 43-18, the #1 team in 6-Man Stratton handled Cheraw 50-12, Sedgwick County shutout Crowley County 44-0, a young Rocky Ford team went down to Wiggins 55-8 and our lone winner this weekend was La Junta as they were impressive against 3A Pueblo East taking the win 26-17.

Saturday saw Fowler fall to Akron 28-14 and Swink taking their second straight loss 48-20 against Walsenburg.

GAMES TO WATCH:

SOFTBALL