By BY BRUCE HIXON – SPORTS EDITOR
It is the kind of matchup fans often want to see, but rarely get.
In this case, it was a battle between the East Brewton regular season champion Yankees and the Brewton regular season champion Tigers for all the marbles in the Little League City Series Age 11-12 championship.
Bragging rights for 2007 will go to the Brewton side after the Tigers snapped a 3-3 deadlock with three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning on their way to a 6-3 win in Friday's finale.
The Tigers watched a 3-1 lead disappear in the top of the fifth disappear when the Yankees' Dillan Carpenter and Brian Settle crossed the plate to tie the game 3-3.
The Tigers got a couple of big hits in their decisive rally in the bottom of the fifth, as Rob Stokes doubled and Jacob Fillmore singled to start the rally.
However, the Yankees' defense committed three straight errors on balls hit by Wesley Maddox, Aaron Yuhasz and Rasheen Thomas that opened the door for the decisive three runs. Austin Graddy capped off the rally with a single.
The Yankees had grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when they converted a walk to Damion Williams into a run.
The Tigers scored single runs in each of their first three at-bats to grab a 3-1 lead. Stokes singled and scored in the bottom of the first, Graddy tripled and scored in the second and Maddox reached on an error and scored on another error in the third.
Jacob Fillmore struck out 10 to get the win for the Tigers.
The Tigers earned their spot in the championship game Thursday when they beat the East Brewton Dodgers 7-3. The Yankees advanced to the title game with a 4-2 win over the Brewton Rangers.
(B) Tigers 7, (EB) Dodgers 3
Rob Stokes struck out 10 and scattered seven hits in a complete game effort to lead the Brewton Tigers to their 7-3 semifinal win over the East Brewton Thursday.
Six of the Tigers seven runs were unearned. Four of those came in the bottom of the first inning when the Tigers took a 4-0 lead they never relinquished.
The Tigers' first inning rally began when Stokes led off with a single. After Dodgers pitcher Cam Blackman got a strikeout, Wesley Maddox hit into a fielder's choice. An error on the play allowed Maddox to reach safely. Aaron Yuhasz also reached safely on a fielder's choice where the Dodgers were unable to retire anybody. Rasheen Thomas walked to set up back-to-back two-run doubles by Caleb Stewart and Austin Graddy.
The Dodgers were able to shave that lead in half over their next two at-bats. Cord Moulder singled, advanced a base on an error and scored when Brandon Carmichael reached on a fielder's choice in the second.
Blackman led off the third with a single and scored on a double by Trent Wright in the third that narrowed the gap to 4-2.
The Tigers got one of those runs back in the bottom of the third. Thomas doubled with one out and Graddy drew a two-out walk. Thomas came in to score when Zachary Grififn reached on a fielder's choice to make it 5-2.
The Tigers ran their lead up to 7-2 in the fourth. Brandon Bradley singled and both he and Aaron Yuhasz circled the bases when Yuhasz' infielder groundball was misplayed and rolled to the outfield wall.
Consecutive singles by Wright, Hunter Mullins and Shawn Lucas produced the Dodgers final run in the fifth.
(EB) Yankees 3, (B) Rangers 1
The Brewton Rangers may have had more opportunities, but it was the East Brewton Yankees who made the most of their opportunities in their 3-1 semifinal win Thursday.
The Rangers left 10 runners on base, which included the bases loaded in the third, fourth and fifth innings.
The Yankees took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Dylan Godwin walked and Brian Settle doubled him home, but the Rangers tied it in the top of the second when Dominique Jackson doubled and Taylor Cordell hit an RBI single.
Three two-out runs by the Yankees in the bottom of the fourth proved to be decisive.
Godwin and Settle led off the frame with walks, but Rangers pitcher Sam Smith retired the next two batters. Jared Salter followed with an RBI single that gave the Yankees the lead for good. Back-to-back errors on balls hit by Trey Thomas and Quantae Barksdale allowed two more runs to score and put the Yankees up 4-1.
Settle worked the first four and one-third innings for the Yankees to get the win. Eleven of the 13 outs Settle posted came by strikeouts.