leaderstatdog

Yes, it will be inserted in Thursday's edition.

It will be available at most convenience stores in the Orange County area and at our offices at 600 Martin Luther King (end of MLK near Tulane) on August 31.

The 2006 Orange Leader football edition will be released on Thursday, August 31. This year's edition will be the biggest ever, 64 full-color pages and will include photos of ALL OC players plus the bands, cheerleaders and drill teams for the 6 teams in the Leader coverage area. Here is a preview of the cover.

Leopards heading to state tournament after 6-3 victory Saturday, June 3, 2006 3:33 PM CDT By LOUIE AVERY Texarkana Gazette MOUNT PLEASANT, Texas—Rick Fowler couldn’t have dreamed of a better scenario for his first trip to the Class 3A state tournament. Fowler’s 16-year-old son Zach was the winning pitcher and drove home two runs in helping Liberty-Eylau defeat third-ranked Lindale, 6-3, to earn the school’s first trip to state. Reliever Cory Wells survived a scarey seventh inning as the Eagles loaded the bases with one out. One run scored on a single by Justin Valdez, but Wells got the next two on grounders to end the game. L-E (26-14) never trailed after scoring three runs in the first inning. Lindale starter Drew Cole (10-3) got into trouble early when two walks and singles by Cory Wells and Jarrod McFee got the Leopards on top 3-0. That lead became 4-0 in the third when Keith Allen walked, stole second and continued to third on a throwing error by the catcher. Allen scored when Fowler lined a single to left. Fowler retired the Eagles easily during the first two innings, but ran into trouble in the third. Mitch Baker singled to left to start the frame and Nevin Rhea walked. Fowler got the next two batters, but yielded a run-scoring single to Carson Middleton. Fowler was also in trouble in the fourth when he loaded the bases and went to a 3-0 count on Rhea. The lanky southpaw rallied with three straight strikes for his fourth strikeout, and got Jacob Cates on a long fly to center. Ryan Merrell’s double over Allen’s head in left to start the fifth, spelling Fowler’s exit and bringing Wells to the mound. Allen got Middleton on a fly to right and struck out the next batter, but Aaron Neely bounced an 0-1 offering into left to make it 4-2. Travis Rhea reached on an infield error, but Justin Valdez grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the inning. Allen got Middleton on a fly to right and struck out the next batter, but Aaron Neely bounced an 0-1 offering into left to make it 4-2. Travis Rhea reached on an infield error, but Justin Valdez grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the inning. Valdez replaced Cole in the sixth after the Eagles’ husky right-hander was struck by a liner off the bat of Clay Jeffirs. The ball bounced into foul territory down the first base line and Jeffirs was thrown out at first by catcher Jacob Cates. Middlebrooks walked for the third time to start the Leopards’ seventh, and Allen followed with a bunt single trying to sacrifice. Both runners moved up on Fowler’s sacrifice, and two pitches later Middlebrooks scored on a wild pitch to make it 5-2. McFee then lined a pitch off Valdez that bounced into left to score Allen and make it 6-2. Leopard fans swarmed the field after the third out in the seventh. It was an emotional ending for the Eagles, who had attended the funeral of former teammate Tim Brey earlier in the day. Liberty-Eylau 301 000 2 — 6 8 2 Lindale 001 010 1 — 3 10 2 Zach Fowler, Cory Wells (5) and Clay Jeffirs; Drew Cole, Justin Valdez (6) and Jacob Cates. WP-Fowler (5-1); LP-Cole (10-3).

Pairings just released by UIL: 2006 UIL State Baseball Tournament June 7-8 Disch-Falk Field, University of Texas at Austin June 7-10 Dell Diamond, Round Rock Wednesday, June 7 Disch-Falk Field, University of Texas at Austin 4A SEMIFINALS 12 noon Fort Worth Arlington Heights (36-3) vs. McKinney North (28-8 ) 3 p.m. New Braunfels (29-5) vs. Channelview (32-7) Dell Diamond, Round Rock 2A SEMIFINALS 10 a.m. Brock (32-1) vs. Rogers (31-6-1) 1 p.m. Hughes Springs (34-0) vs. Holliday (21-6) 3A SEMIFINALS 4 p.m. Bridge City (33-5) vs. Texarkana Liberty Eylau (24-14) 7 p.m. Falfurrias (28-6) vs. Abilene Wylie (27-8 ) Thursday, June 8 Disch-Falk Field, University of Texas at Austin 4A FINAL 12 noon Dell Diamond, Round Rock 2A FINAL 2 p.m. 3A FINAL 6 p.m. Friday, June 9 Dell Diamond, Round Rock 1A SEMIFINALS 10 a.m. Thorndale (28-5) vs. Anderson-Shiro (26-6) 1 p.m. Gilmer Union Hill (25-3) vs. New Deal (21-5) 5A SEMIFINALS 4 p.m. Corpus Christi Moody (32-7) vs. Katy (36-8-1) 7 p.m. Conroe The Woodlands (36-1) vs. Midland (32-9) Saturday, June 10 Dell Diamond, Round Rock 1A FINAL 12 noon 5A FINAL 4 p.m.

Cameron coach about to meet with Billy. He thinks BC will flip for 1-game Mentioned a three-game series, Thurs and Fri at Baseball USA in Houston. We'll see how it turns out.......

HE THREW NINE INNINGS ON THURS. BETWEEN GMS. 1 & 2 Belt pitched four innings in taking the loss in the opener before pitching five shutout innings in the finale to get the win.

Cameron Yoe 121 005 0 - 9 Lufkin Hudson 030 020 0 - 5 FINAL Cameron Yoe (24-9) will take on BC (31-5) next week in the Regional Finals for the right to go to Austin. Date, site and time to be announced. BELT WAS THROWN OUT OF THE GAME, POINTING AT THE UMPIRE AND WAS ESCORTED OFF THE FIELD. He tried to come back on the field after the game, but had to be restrained by his father and umpires got a police escort off the field. Belt, who pitched nine innings on Thursday between Gms. 1 and 2, came in with the bases loaded and blew a save by retiring just one batter, gave up a hit, a walk and hit a batter Hudson returned 8 starters from last year's team that fell to BC in the Regional Finals