By BY BRUCE HIXON – SPORTS EDITOR
There is only one word necessary to describe the performance the Brewton Babe Ruth 13-year-old All-Stars turned in at the District 7 Tournament.
Domination.
Brewton put an exclamation point on its effort Saturday when it needed just five innings to blast South Monroe 14-0 in the championship game played at T.R. Miller High School.
Brewton won all three of its tournament games against South Monroe (twice) and Atmore on the 10-run rule. It outscored its opponents by a 36-2 margin, outhit its opponents 33-6 and its defense did not make an error.
South Monroe had knocked off Atmore 14-2 in six innings earlier Saturday in an elimination game just to get the right to play Brewton in the finals.
Brewton built its 14-0 lead in just three at-bats. Three of those runs came in the top of the first inning when Gary McGraw was hit by a pitch, Conner Denton ripped an RBI triple and Logan Williamson hit an RBI single. Williamson went to second on a balk, to third on a single by Curtis Glaize and scored on a wild pitch.
Brewton sent a dozen batters to the plate, nine of which scored, in the top of the second when it busted the game open and ran its lead to 12-0.
Keith Bradley and Hayden Cooper both had a pair of singles in the frame. McGraw, Reid Johnson and Glaize all added RBI hits. Brewton also received three walks and took advantage of three walks, a balk and two errors by the South Monroe defense.
Brewton added some icing to the cake in the top of the third when Monterious Ciulliver beat out an infield hit and Jaren Jackson circled the bases on a two-run, inside-the-park homerun.
A 14-hit, 14-run attack was more than enough support for winning pitcher Keith Bradley, who went the distance on a three-hit shutout with eight strikeouts. Bradley only had one serious threat, which came in the bottom of the first when Trent Luker and Trent Benson hit back-to-back two-out singles. Bradley got out of that jam when he got Zack Dreadin to fly out to right field.
The district crown sends Brewton to the state tournament, which gets underway at Huntsville July 18. Pairings and game times will be announced at a later date.
At Brewton
Brewton 392 00 - 14 14 0
South Monroe 000 00 – 0 3 2