By By BRUCE HIXON – Sports Editor
The day was different, but the opponent was the same and so was the same frustrating result for the Brewton Babe Ruth 13-year-old-allstars.
Brewton's tournament run at the district tournament ended Saturday when it was eliminated by Atmore 13-7. It was also Atmore that knocked off Brewton 13-3 in Thursday's opening round.
Many of the same things that led to Brewton's downfall in the opener showed up again in Saturday's rematch, namely errors. Brewton had seven miscues in its first-round loss and eight more Saturday.
The two first innings of those games were nearly identical. Atmore took advantage of three Brewton errors and jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first encounter. Atmore also built a 5-0 first inning lead Saturday when Brewton committed four miscues.
Atmore, which was held to two infield hits in the first inning against Brewton pitcher Trent Robinson, increased its lead to 7-0 in the second inning on the strength of an RBI double by Brett Wilkins.
Brewton's offense was held to just three hits, but it received 15 free passes through 13 walks and two hit batters. Two of those free passes came in the top of the third when Brewton got on the board with a pair of runs and pulled within 7-2. Robinson walked, stole second and scored when Cody Swain reached on an error. Swain stole his way around the bases. The last of those stolen bases was a successful theft of home when he and Ryland Dixon pulled off a double steal.
Atmore got those two runs back in the bottom of the third. Gavin Salter singled and C.J. Pierce walked. Both runners scored when Devonte Brown reached on an error and pushed Atmore's lead up to 9-2.
Two of Brewton's three hits came back-to-back in the sixth when it trimmed Atmore's cushion down to just 9-5. Mitch Emmons walked and Bradley Brown singled to set up a two-run triple by Robinson. Robinson later scored on a wild pitch.
Any additional hope Brewton had of completing the comeback faded when Atmore scored four times in the bottom of the sixth and increased its lead to 13-5. Two of the runs scored on errors. The other pair scored on wild pitches.
Brewton's final two runs came in the top of the seventh came when Robinson and Josh Palmer were hit by pitches with the bases loaded.
At Atmore
Brewton 002 003 2 – 7 3 8
Atmore 520 004 X - 13 9 2