Pulaski Robinson Spring Break Baseball Tournament features 77 teams
By DUDLEY E. DAWSON
While some finish up their spring break on a beach, athletes from 77 high school baseball teams and 6 states will do so on 8 diamonds in Central Arkansas this weekend.
They’ll do so as part of the eighth annual Pulaski Robinson Spring Baseball Tournament, which begins Thursday morning and runs through late Saturday night.
The tournament, which will be played on eight different fields in Central Arkansas, is a labor of love for Pulaski Robinson head baseball coach Issac Dulaney.
“The most exciting part last year and kind of the culmination of everything we have tried to do kind of came to a point last year when we had 24 Major League Baseball scouts in the ballpark,” Dulaney said.
“We have been trying to get as good a teams as we can find and also bring the top end teams in the state of Arkansas and match them up with rally high end teams from other states.”
There are 66 teams from Arkansas participating in the tournament along with squads from Oklahoma, Missouri, Louisiana, Tennessee and Ohio.
The games will be played at Pulaski Robinson, Little Rock Christian, Pulaski Academy, the University of Little Rock, Maumelle Charter and Diamond City Park in Maumelle and Episcopal Collegiate.
“It’s harder to have nicer weather in Arkansas than Florida and some other places, but generally somewhere around the end of March we start getting some better weather,” Dulaney said. So we just started trying too put together a tournament and we have grown it over the last six years.
“We are just excited to bring 77 teams this year to Central Arkansas, have six different states represented and just play some big-time baseball in our own backyard.”
The field includes a trio of 2024 Arkansas high school state champions in Valley View (5A), Prairie Grove (4A) an Gosnell (3A).
“Last year Valley View was one of the best high school teams to ever come through Arkansas with a ton of talent,” Dulaney said. “They had a potential first-round draft inn Slade Caldwell and him players like that come to your ballpark and drawing attention of major league scouts was really cool.
Valley View faced Missouri power Raymore-Peculiar in one of the event’s showcase games last season.
“They (Ray Pec) had a big 6-3 right hander pitcher throwing in the 90s and being able to see that level of baseball in your in your own ballpark was what we envisioned when we were trying to grow it,” Dulaney said.
Raycore-Peculiar is back this year with Arkansas 2026 pitching commit Johnny Carver among its standouts.
Some other top Arkansas programs on hand this season include Harding Academy, Little Rock Christian, Bentonville West, Woodlawn, Benton, Conway and Bryant.
The out of state teams include the Louisiana pair of Dowwnsvile Charter and Oak Grove, a Missouri trio of Raymore-Peculiar, Staley and Kickapoo, Oklahoma’s Enid and Oklahoma Christian, Tennessee’s White Station and Olentangy Orange of Columbus, Ohio.
“Just being able to see these big teams with this amazing talent, not just from Arkansas, but all around the region coming to play teams in your own backyard is what are excited about the most,” Dulaney said.
Photo courtesy of Pulaski Robinson
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