By BY BRUCE HIXON – SPORTS EDITOR
Brewton's hopes of reaching the semifinals of the Babe Ruth 13-year-olds state tournament at Huntsville came to a crashing halt Saturday when it was upended by Cottage Hill 12-0 in five innings.
Joseph Strength, who started and took the loss, had two hits to lead Brewton in its tournament finale. Tyler Nelms and Conner Denton also had a hit.
Cottage Hill scored three times in the opening inning and never looked back en route to the win.
Brewton ended pool play with a 1-3 record. Brewton's lone win, a 9-2 victory over South Huntsville Thursday, was the first by a Brewton team at the Babe Ruth state tournament since 2003 when both the 14s and 15s won a game.
West Alabama 4, Brewton 0
Brewton outhit West Alabama 7-6, but was blanked 4-0 in Wednesday's opening round of the tournament.
A pair of walks set up an RBI single in the top of the second inning that gave West Alabama the only run it needed.
West Alabama extended its lead to 3-0 with a pair of runs in the third on an error, a single and a double.
West Alabama got its final run in the sixth courtesy of a pair of singles, a fielder's choice and another single.
Conner Denton had a pair of singles to lead Brewton. Brewton's other five hits were all singles, one each by Hayden Cooper, Reid Johnson, Kameron Winn, Eli Tyree and Gary McGraw.
Joseph Strength suffered the loss for Brewton.
At Huntsville
W. Alabama 012 001 0 - 4 6 0
Brewton 000 000 0 - 0 7 2
Etowah County 10, Brewton 2
Etowah County ripped out 15 hits, six of which went for extra bases and two of which sailed over the wall for homeruns in its 10-2 win over Brewton in Thursday's opening session.
Etowah County built enough cushion for its win in the first two innings when it jumped out to a 3-0 lead.
Brewton trimmed that gap to 3-1 in the top of the fourth when Collin' Graves' RBI single scored Reid Johnson.
A two-run double by Garrett Presley followed by a two-run homer by Dalton Wadley in the bottom half of the fourth widened that gap to 7-1.
Craig Dudley got another homerun the following inning when Craig Dudley ripped a two-run round tripper.
Conner Denton had two hits in a losing cause to lead Brewton.
Gary McGraw took the loss.
At Huntsville
Brewton 000 110 0 – 2 7 2
Etowah Co. 120 421 X - 10 15 3
Brewton 9, South Huntsville 2
Brewton collected 11 hits and took advantage of six errors by South Huntsville's defense, as it collected its first win of the tournament with a 9-2 triumph in Thursday's second game.
A four-run rally in the top of the second inning snapped a 1-1 deadlock and gave Brewton a lead it never relinquished.
Singles by Curtis Glaize and Joseph Strength started the uprising and Collin Graves reached on a fielder's choice to load the bases. Glaize scored on a wild pitch, Strength scored on a throwing error and Graves scored on Gary McGraw's RBI groundout. Brewton picked up another run later in the inning when Monterious Culliver walked, stole second and scored on a single by Logan Williamson.
Brewton ran its lead to 8-1 with three more runs in the top of the fourth. Culliver singled, stole second, went to third on a throwing error and scored on a groundout by Keith Bradley.
Jaren Jackson and Eli Tyree followed with singles, but the biggest play of the inning occurred one batter later when Glaize's flyball into center field was dropped by Brandon Ogle and two runs scored.
Culliver, Bradley and Williamson all had two hits to pace Brewton.
Bradley allowed two runs on five hits over the first six innings to get the win.
At Huntsville
Brewton 140 310 0 – 9 11 2
S. Huntsville 100 100 0 – 2 5 6