By By Adam Robinson
Sports Editor
Friday, July 10, 2009 may just be a random date, but for members, coaches, fan and Little League officials for East Brewton, it’s a date that will be remembered forever.
That date will go down in history as the first ever Little League district championship for East Brewton as the 11- and 12-year-old All Star team came out of the losers bracket and defeated Opp 4-1 to claim the district title championship in East Brewton.
Rob Jones, who is East Brewton’s No. 4 hitter and wears No. 4 on his jersey, had two homeruns in the game and all of East Brewton’s runs in the game.
Jones connected for a three-run homerun in the top of the first inning to give East Brewton a 3-0 lead after the first inning. After Opp cut the lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the fifth inning, Jones connected for another homerun to make the East Brewton lead 4-1 in the top of the sixth and allow East Brewton to get the win.
Jones finished the night 2-for-2 with four RBIs and one homerun.
Miles Powell had the only other hit for East Brewton, as he was 1-for-2 with a single in the first inning.
While Jones had the power at the plate for the all stars, Tyler Joyner was keeping Opp off-balanced at the plate as he went the complete game six innings and allowed one run on two hits, walked none, and struck out 10.
The two hits came in the final two innings of play.
Parker said Jones and Joyner had great games in the big win.
As far as how it feels to be going to state for Parker?
After leading off with a single to start the game for East Brewton, Miles Powell was thrown out at second base by Opp after a fielder’s choice by Joyner. Michael Williams then reached on an error for East Brewton to put runners at second and third for East Brewton.
Then Jones came to the plate and gave East Brewton a 3-0 lead with his first homerun of the night.
Neither team threatened to score again as both pitchers had settled down in the middle innings and Joyner had a perfect game until the fourth inning when an East Brewton error gave Opp their first base runner of the night with two outs.
After the error, Joyner picked up his seventh strikeout of the night to end the threat.
In the fifth inning for Opp, the no-hitter for Joyner ended as he gave up a leadoff single and the runner advanced to second and third base on passed ball and wild pitch.
Opp cut the score to 3-1 with an RBI single, but Joyner closed out the inning with another strikeout to keep the lead at 3-1.
In the top of the sixth inning, Jones lead the inning off with a homerun to get the run back and give East Brewton a 4-1 lead.
With three outs left for their first championship, a leadoff singe for Opp ended with a fielder’s choice from the next batter.
Joyner struck out his 10th and final batter of the game for out number two.
After taking a deep breath and getting some good luck meetings from his players, the final Opp batter flied out to Robin Swift in centerfield and gave East Brewton their first championship as players and coach Parker celebrated with a dog pile in the middle of the field.
East Brewton will now advance to the state tournament in Huntsville.