By Staff
They were competitive in both games. They had opportunities to win both games.
That formula was still not quite good enough for the Brewton Little League Age 9-10 All-Stars, who were eliminated from the state tournament at Mobile Monday when they fell to Russellville 6-3.
Brewton took its only lead at the tournament in the bottom of the first inning when Collin Graves singled, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on an error.
Russellville used a trio of hits to score a pair of runs in the second inning to take a 2-1 lead, but Brewton rallied in the fourth to pull even again. Shawn Odom walked, went to third on a single by Wesley Maddox and scored on a wild pitch.
Russellville used a pair of hits and a Brewton error to score the go-ahead run in the fifth inning. Russellville then took advantage of three Brewton errors in the sixth inning to score three insurance runs and push its lead to 6-2.
Brewton scored a final run in the bottom of the sixth when Denton doubled and later scored on a groundout by Odom.
Parker Reiss went the distance on the mound for Brewton and suffered the loss.
Brewton fell victim to a stellar pitching performance by Bay Minette's Justin Hathrock when it fell 2-0 in Saturday's opening round.
Hathrock tossed a no-hitter and struck out 10 to lead his team to victory.
Despite Hathrock's gem, Brewton did have some chances. The best came in the top of the first inning when Louis Miller led off with a walk, moved up to second base on a passed ball and then over to third base on a wild pitch.
Hathrock got Bay Minette out of that jam when he retired the next three batters, two by strikeout.
Brewton got a leadoff walk from Christian Purvis in the second inning, but he was thrown ut trying to steal.
Conner Denton received a one-out walk in the fourth inning, but went no farther. Hathrock then retired the final eight Brewton batters.
Meanwhile Denton also threw a strong game on the mound for Brewton, as he allowed just four hits, no walks and struck out six.
However, two of those hits came in the first inning when Bay Minette scored its first run on an RBI single by Hathrock.
The other two hits came in the fourth inning when Bay Minette scored its other marker. It also took advantage of a key infield error by Brewton.
Saturday's game
Brewton 000 000 – 0 0 2
Bay Minette 100 10X – 2 4 0
Monday's game
Russellville 020 013 – 6 12 1
Brewton 100 101 – 3 6 4