Trailing by one run in the top of the seventh inning, with the bases loaded and one out, the Brewton Babe Ruth 15-year-old all-stars needed one run to tie the game and two to take the lead.
Just when it looked like Brewton had tied the game and was set to possibly score more, excitement from Brewton’s side of the field Wednesday morning at LBW’s Crum Foshee Field in Andalusia quickly turned to disbelief while the excitement passed over to Monroe’s side of the field as they held on to beat Brewton 3-2 in the first state semifinal game of the day.
The loss eliminated Brewton from tournament play and clinch a spot in that state championship game for the Monroe all-stars.
In the top of the seventh inning for Brewton, with them trailing Monroe 3-2 after both teams scored all their runs in the first inning, Lane Chavers led the inning off with a walk. After a fly out by Jared Cooper for the first out of the inning, Dakota Graves was hit by a pitch and Brooks Brown worked a full count to draw a walk to load the bases with one out.
Next, Brewton’s leadoff hitter Malcolm Hawthorne lifted a sacrifice fly to left field, that easily scored Chavers from third to tie the game at 3-all.
With Brewton excited with a tie game, Monroe coaches and players appealed to the umpire that Chavers left the base early before the second out occurred. Chavers was eventually called out to give Monroe the win by one.
Brewton held a 2-0 lead after the top of the first inning as they used a single, two walks, a balk, a passed ball and a Monroe error to take the early lead.
In the bottom half of the inning, Monroe used four singles and a Brewton error to plate three runs to take a one-run lead.
Blaine Lee earned the win on the mound for Monroe while Chavers took the loss for Brewton.
Chavers went 1/3 of an inning and allowed three runs on four hits, walked none and struck out one.
Tripp Floyd relieved Chavers in the inning and went the next 4 2/3 innings and allowed one hit, two walks, and struck out five. Cooper went the final inning and allowed no runs and struck out one.
After the first 1/3 of the game for Monroe that saw them get four hits and three runs, they were held to only one hit the rest of the game with no runs scored.
At the plate for Brewton, Derrick Barton had a single along with Chavers and Brown. Floyd had a single and a double in the loss.
Brewton left 14 runners on base in the loss with 12 runners being left on base in the final five innings of play. Brewton had the bases loaded in the third, sixth and seventh innings and failed to score.
In their district tournament with Monroe a few weeks ago at T.R. Miller, Brewton defeated Monroe 2-1 in the best two-of-three series.
Brewton won game one 8-3 but lost game two in extra innings (nine innings) by a score of 12-11. In the winner-take-all game three, Brewton won 12-11 over Monroe in eight innings to get the win and take the series win.
Making the Brewton Babe Ruth 15-year-old team was: Tripp Floyd, Lane Chavers, Jake Najor, Austin Holmes, River Johnson, Timothy McDonald, Malcolm Hawthorne, Brooks Brown, Derrick Barton, Dakota Graves, Colton Morris, and Jared Cooper.
Coaches were Robbie Floyd, Lew Najor and Russ McDonald.
Tourney recap:
In their first game of the state tournament Saturday, Brewton defeated Opp 8-4 to start the tournament 1-0.
The game was delayed 5-and-a-half-hours for a rain delay and was resumed at Andalusia High School’s baseball field after the game was started at LBW’s field.
On Sunday, Brewton lost to Tallassee 4-0. The loss to Tallassee Sunday made Brewton the No. 2 seed in their pool.
Tallassee finished as the No. 1 seed while Opp was the No. 3 seed.
Brewton went 1-1 in pool play while Tallassee was 2-0 and Opp was 0-2.
With the No. 2 seed, Brewton advanced to the single elimination part of the tournament Monday at LBW and faced off against Childersburg.
In the single elimination part of the tournament Monday, Brewton used a 6-5 rally win over Childersburg to clinch a spot in the state semifinals on Wednesday after having Tuesday off.
Brewton went an overall 2-2 in the state tournament and finished as one of the top-four teams in the state along with Mims White (state champion), Monroe (state runner-up) and Mims Green.
In the other semifinal game Wednesday in Andalusia, Mims White defeated Mims Green 3-1.
In the state championship game between Mims White and Monroe, Mims White doubled up Monroe 12-6 to win the state championship.
Monroe built a 4-0 lead after the top of the second inning with one run in the first and three in the second inning, Mims White plated six runs in their bottom half of the inning to build a 6-4 lead.
Mims built a 9-4 lead after the third inning but saw Monroe come back with two in the fourth to cut the lead to 9-6.
From there, Mims added two in the fourth and one in the sixth to double up Monroe by a score of 12-6 and get the championship win.
With the win for Mims White, they will now head to the regional tournament that will be held in North Carolina. Monroe took state runner-up with the loss.
Monroe’s 15-year-old team won the state championship the year before as 14-year-olds.
Brewton was one of 11 teams in the state tournament.
The 11 teams were divided into three pools-pool A, pool A, and pool C-with Brewton being in pool A with Opp and Tallassee.
In pool B was Childersburg, Mims Green, Covington County and Millbrook.
Pool C was Mims White, Monroeville, Talladega and Elba.
Games were played at the baseball fields at LBW and Andalusia High School.