The Benton Panthers are returning to the 6A State Tournament title game for the first time since 2015 after defeating rival Sheridan Yellowjackets 7-4 in last Saturday's 6A State Tournament semifinal game.
Falling to the Yellowjackets three times previous this season by a combined four runs, the Panthers got over that Sheridan hump and will face possibly the best team in the state, regardless of classification, in the Greenwood Bulldogs.
"They may be the best team in all of Arkansas, not only 6A," Benton Coach Mark Balisterri said. "But everybody's got to play their last game. They put their pants on just like we do. We'll go out there and see what happens."
The West No. 4 seed Panthers (22-11) and West No. 1 seed Bulldogs (31-3) will play for the 6A championship at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville at 3 p.m. today.
The Panthers last made the 6A title game in 2015 when they fell to Sheridan 10-9, and last won a state championship in 2009 with an 8-5 victory over Searcy.
After an un-inspiring finish in the 6A West Conference Tournament when Benton fell 5-4 to the Yellowjackets and lost 7-6 in extra innings to El Dorado when the Panthers couldn't get a timely base hit and made errors leading to unearned runs to get stuck with the No. 4 seed, Benton has been a different team.
The Panther offense has come alive as Benton shut out the West Memphis Blue Devils 10-0 in the first round of the state tourney and held on to a 10-7 win over the Marion Patriots in the quarterfinals before getting past Sheridan for the first time this year.
"This is a different team today than it was two weeks ago," Balisterri said. "We can tell in our practices we're playing more sharp than what we were. We do things better than we did it all year long. That's a credit to these kids buying in what we do, believing in themselves, believing in each other, believing in the coaches. It's been a fun ride. There's no reason why we shouldn't feel like we've got just as good a chance as anybody to win a state championship."