By Staff
Their path to the championship round may not be an ideal way to go.
Then again, the bottom line is the Brewton Little League Age 9-10 All-Stars reached the championship round of the Opp District Tournament Friday with a thrilling 11-10 come-from-behind victory over Andalusia.
Brewton's path to the championship round started with a loss to East Brewton in the opening round. They then overcame an early four-run deficit in its second game against Evergreen, another battle with rival East Brewton and Friday's come-from-behind win over Andalusia.
Brewton must beat Opp twice in order to win the championship. The first game was Saturday. If Brewton won Saturday, the final and decisive game will be today at 1:30 p.m.
Friday's game was a seesaw affair that featured four lead changes.
After Andalusia took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning, Brewton gained its first advantage with a three-run rally in the bottom half of the inning.
Louis Miller started that rally with a single, which turned out to be Brewton's lone hit of the inning. Collin Graves walked, but the next two hitters were retired. Christian Purvis kept the inning going with a walk, Wesley Maddox reached on an error and both Kameron Winn and Shawn Odom drew bases on balls. Andalusia also committed two additional errors to add fuel to the fire.
Andalusia regained the lead with a four-run second inning to go up 6-3 and then added another run to that cushion in the top of the third inning.
Brewton erased that deficit when it pushed across six runs in the bottom of the third inning to go up 9-7. Purvis had a single and both Collin Graves and Conner Denton each had doubles to spark the rally. Andalusia also had its second three-error inning of the game.
Andalsuia took advantage of a single, three walks and an error to score three runs in the fifth inning to move back in front 10-9.
A pair of walks to Winn and Tyler Etheridge opened the door for Brewton's game-winning rally in the bottom of the sixth inning. Miller followed with a single and then an infield error on a ball hit by Graves allowed the winning run to score.
That play also made Graves a winner on the mound, as he worked a hitless and scoreless sixth inning. Purvis, Maddox and Parker Reiss had preceded him.
At Opp
See 9-10S Page 7
Andalusia 241 030 – 10 6 7
Brewton 306 002 – 11 8 5
Thursday's game
Brewton avenged its first loss of the tournament Thursday when it ousted East Brewton 4-1. East Brewton had beaten Brewton 6-5 in the opening round of the tournament.
Brewton's Conner Denton beat East Brewton with both his arm and his bat.
On the mound, Denton went the distance on a three-hitter, as he walked three and struck out six. At the plate, Denton had three of Brewton's five hits.
Brewton scratched out single runs in the first, second, fourth and fifth innings en route to victory.
Louis Miller singled and scored on Denton's RBI double in the first inning against East Brewton starting hurler Taylor Ballard.
In the second inning, Kameron Winn reached on a fielder's choice and scored on a sacrifice fly by Miller against East Brewton reliever Hayden Cooper, who pitched the final four innings.
The lead went to 3-0 in the fourth inning when Winn walked and later scored on an error on a ball hit by Miller.
Brewton got its final run in the fifth inning when Denton singled, Parker Reiss walked and Winn reached on an error.
In need of at least four runs in its final at bat in the sixth inning, East Brewton got only one through a single by Ballard, two passed balls and Logan Williamson's RBI fielder's choice.
At Opp
East Brewton 000 001 – 1 3 2
Brewton 110 11X – 4 5 1
Wednesday's games
Twenty-one runs was not enough for East Brewton to win it's second-round game against Opp Monday, but it was more than enough to eliminate Covington County 21-6 in five innings Wednesday.
Despite the final margin, East Brewton found itself in a big hole in the first inning. After East Brewton scored a pair of runs in the top half of the first inning, Covington County answered with six in the bottom of the first inning to take a 6-2 lead.
It could have been worse. Covington County had runners on first and second base when Shae Short lined a shot that appeared to be headed into rightfield. At the last minute, East Brewton second baseman Trent Wright leaped to his right and snared the linedrive in the air to end the inning. Wright's catch prevented at least one run, maybe two on the play, and who knows how many afterwards. Instead the catch ended the inning with Covington County up only 6-2.
East Brewton pitcher Logan Williamson gave up three singles, four walks and a hit batter in that first inning, but after that he was nearly flawless. Williamson gave up just two more hits and two more walks the rest the way, but more importantly he did not give up another run.
Meanwhile East Brewton's offense chipped away at the deficit. Williamson had an RBI double to highlight a three-run second inning that cut the gap to just 6-5. An RBI single by Dillon Anthony tied the game at 6-6 in the top half of third inning.
East Brewton took the lead for good when it pushed across four runs to go up 10-6. Reid Johnson and Houston Pace had RBI singles, while two runs scored on a groundout by Brewer Grimes.
East Brewton sent 17 batters to the plate and scored 11 runs in the fifth inning to knock the 10-run rule into effect.
Taylor Ballard and Williamson both had two-run singles, Ben Bounds ripped an RBI double and Johnson drilled an RBI single to fuel the big inning.
At Opp
East Brewton 231 4(11) – 21 15 1
Covington Co. 600 00 – 6 4 4
Brewton 20, Evergreen 5
Brewton overcame a sluggish start with a big finish to oust Evergreen 20-5 in just four innings in Wednesday's elimination round.
Evergreen hit Brewton with four runs in the top of the first inning, but all that did was serve as a wakeup call.
Brewton responded with 20 unanswered runs during its three at bats to seize control of the game.
Six of those came in the bottom of the first inning courtesy of two-run doubles by Conner Denton and Collin Langford plus a two-run single by Kameron Winn.
The real key to the game though was an 11-run second inning where Brewton sent 16 batters to the plate and swelled its lead to 17-4.
Parker Reiss fueled that inning with an RBI double and a two-run single. Wesley Maddox had a pair of RBI singles, while Denton also had two hits in the inning, both singles.
Brewton helped secure its 10-run rule victory with three final runs in the third inning. The key blow was an RBI triple by Denton, his fourth hit of the game.
Brewton's trio of Shawn Odom, Christian Purvis and Wesley Maddox combined on a one-hitter for the win. Purvis threw two and one-third hitless innings of relief to nab the win.
At Opp
Evergreen 400 1 – 5 1 6
Brewton 6(11)3 X – 20 16 1