By By BRUCE HIXON – Sports Editor
While the times and pairings have finally been announced for next week's Babe Ruth 14 and 15-year-old all-star district tournament, some questions about the location remain.
The field for the 14-year-olds has been reduced to just three teams, as both South Monroe and Atmore have pulled out.
Play gets underway Monday when Evergreen faces Monroeville at 5:30 p.m. Brewton, which drew a first-round bye, will play the winner at 3 p.m. Tuesday.
The loser of Monday's and Tuesday's game will play an elimination game at 5:30 p.m. July 5.
The first game of the championship series will be played at 5:30 p.m. July 6. If necessary, a second championship game will be played at 5:30 p.m. July 7.
The tournament for 15-year-olds also kicks off Monday when Atmore faces Monroeville at 7:30 p.m. The other three participants got first-round byes and begin their part of the tournament Tuesday. Evergreen and South Monroe square off at 1 p.m., while Brewton meets the Atmore/Monroeville winner at 5 p.m.
The first game of the elimination bracket is at 7:30 p.m. July 5 between the Atmore/Monroeville loser and the Evergreen/South Monroe loser. Other elimination games will be played July 7 at a time to be announced and at 5:30 p.m. July 8. The championship bracket semifinal will be at 7:30 p.m. July 6.
The championship series will start at 7:30 p.m. July 8. No date or time has been set for a possible second championship series game.
Both tournaments will be played at Monroeville. There is still some question about where the games will be played. At this time, both tournaments will be played at the Monroeville Youth League Field. There is still the possibility one of the tournaments will be shifted to Monroe County High School. If that happens, the time schedule for both tournaments could change dramatically.
The district tournament for 13-year-olds kicks off Thursday at Atmore. Brewton will play Atmore in the opening round at 6 p.m.
The Little League 11-year-old all-star district tournament schedule at Andalusia has also been topsy-turvy.
All sessions were originally supposed to start at 6 p.m. Tournament officials decided Saturday to push the starting time back to 7 p.m. The first pitch of the East Brewton-Covington County game was thrown at 6:35 p.m. Sunday's East Brewton-Brewton game started at about 6:45 p.m.
Is it not too much to ask for tournament officials to set a starting time and stick with it?
Fans (and sports writers) do not like being told the starting time is at one time only to get there and find out it has been pushed back an hour. They also do not like being told a starting time only to arrive at that time and find the game already in progress.