EB 8U baseball eliminated from tourney play Tuesday night, but will still head to state tournament
Published 12:00 pm Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Andrew Garner
Andalusia Star-News
Opp’s 8 and under All-Stars put on a hitting clinic Tuesday night in district tournament action at Johnson Park in Andalusia.
The Bobcats tallied 32 hits in their wins over East Brewton and Andalusia while putting together a solid lead in each game to make all the difference.
Opp beat East Brewton 20-10 after taking an early eight-run lead in the second inning, and then beat the Bulldogs 14-8 in the district championship game after strutting out to a six-run lead in the third inning.
Because Opp beat Andalusia in the district title game, the Bobcats forced a winner-take-all game Wednesday night at 6 p.m. on Waltman-Russo Field at Johnson Park. The winner of Wednesday night’s game will be the district champion.
East Brewton finished in third place because of its loss to Opp, and will play in next week’s state tournament because the Bobcats were the district host.
The state tournament will begin play on Friday, June 21.
Opp 20, East Brewton 10
Opp’s Prent Huggins, Jake Coon and Helms had two-run hits in the top of the second inning to lead the Bobcats to a 10-2 lead.
After East Brewton’s Jackson Newton hit an RBI single in the bottom of the second, the bats went cold in the third inning.
The Bobcats added their 11th run on a sac fly to cut it to 11-3.
In the top of the sixth, the Bobcats put the game away for good with the help of Helms’ two-run double; and Boothe, Colby Ballard, Coon, Gage Gibson and Andrew Danford’s RBI single each to lead 20-5.
East Brewton cut into its big deficit thanks to four RBI singles and scoring on an error with no outs in the bottom of the sixth.
Spurlin and Boothe went 4-for-4 each; and Gafford and Jaxon Castleberry had three hits each to lead Opp.
East Brewton’s Dakota Rose, Collin Nelson, Wyatt Kent and Jackson Newton had two hits each.