By BY BRUCE HIXON – SPORTS EDITOR
The opening round of the annual Lions Club East-West All-Star series will get underway this week at multiple locations throughout the state.
Local first-round competition will be held Saturday at Jefferson Davis Community College with a pair of games that get underway at 12 noon.
The top 16 players from first-round competition will advance to second-round competition. JDCC will also host one of those rounds May 29 with a tripleheader that gets underway at 10 a.m.
Teams from Mobile, Jackson and Enterprise areas will also compete in the second round of games at JDCC. Brewton will play Jackson at 10 a.m., while Enterprise and Mobile hook up at 12 noon. The top players from the first two games will be brought back for the third game.
The top 16 players from round two along with two alternates will advance to state competition, which will be held at the University of Alabama at Birmingham June 2-3.
The Lions Club All-Star series is for high school juniors and seniors. Many of the participants have already signed at the collegiate level.
Four T.R. Miller players and a pair of W.S. Neal Blue Eagles have given tentative commitments to play in the games.
T.R. Miller will be represented by senior pitcher/first baseman Mackie Jackson, senior third baseman Becker Denton, senior shortstop/pitcher Baxley Raines and senior second baseman Allen Williams. Jackson has already signed with JDCC, while Raines has inked with Troy University. W.S. Neal's representatives include senior first baseman Jared Cooper and senior shortstop Josh Sawyer. Cooper has signed to played football at Auburn.
Six other players from Escambia County schools are also scheduled to compete. That list includes Flomaton's Scott Walton, Jonathan Mize and Corey Gregson and Escambia County's Corey Flowers, Jonathan McNeil and Anthony Matthews.
Other players who are scheduled to compete in the opening round include Robertsdale's Logan Ramage and Travis Waddle, Gulf Shores' D.J. Jones, Chase DiChirara and Evan Stringfellow, Spanish Fort's Evan Chadwell, Ryan Day and Tom Hollingsworth and Andalusia's Jeffrey Etheridge, Taylor Culbreth, Nick Cooper and Justin Ainsworth.
The list of participants also includes Foley's James Patterson and Jonathan Giles, Daphne's Daniel Peterson, Greg Prom, Corey Andrews and Cody Barber, Fairhope's Mike Raia and Reed Barnett, Baldwin County's Cole White, Travis Corleym Dustin Armstrong and David Dean, Red Level's Andrew Odom and Johnathan Griggs, and Florala's Bobby Fleming and Taylor Benton.
While there is no admission charge to the local rounds of competition, donations will be accepted at the gate.