A pitching change in baseball is usually applied in order to help the defensive team stop or minimize any offensive damage done by the opposing team.

However, a pitching change helped liven the King Building Materials season and bats just in time for the postseason.

After a slow offensive start for part of the year, King head coach Troy Anderson decided to take himself off the mound and instead let assistant coach Craig King Sr. pitch to his team.

The move proved to be correct as King plated four runs in the fourth inning and six more in the sixth for a 9-3 win over Selma Trophy in the 9-10-year-olds Dixie Youth Baseball National League Championship, Friday at the Sportsplex.

“In the middle of the season, we fell off hitting the ball a little,” Anderson said. “I didn’t mind taking myself out of the game. I just wanted to win.”

And win is what King did, as they advanced to the league championship as the fourth seed.

King struck for six hits in the fourth inning to take the lead for good.

Trailing 2-0, Justin Levins led off the inning with a single, his first of his two hits on the evening. Kyle Stewart beat out an infield single to send Martarius Sanders, pinch-running for Levins, to second base.

Austin Anderson lashed a single to center field that brought in Sanders for King’s first run. After Cobb Bostick’s single loaded the bases, Adam King’s infield grounder plated Stewart to tie the game at 2.

Justin Seele followed with a line-drive single to right that brought home Anderson and gave King a 3-2 lead. Craig King capped the inning with an RBI single to score Bostick and push the margin to 4-2.

“The kids played their hearts out,” coach Anderson said after his team’s victory. “They needed to play a perfect game and that’s what they did. They played a perfect game.”

King put the game away in the sixth inning, capped by an RBI double by Adam King and run-scoring singles from Anderson, Simmons and Bostick.

The evening began on a less than promising note for King as Selma Trophy dented the scoreboard first. With two out in the first inning, Antauris Smith’s double to left-center field scored Prince James, who reached on a fielder’s choice. Allenson Johnson followed with a scorching line-drive single to center field to bring in Smith to stretch Selma Trophy’s lead to 2-0.

Selma Trophy’s lead seemed even safer backed by a defense that nary allowed a base runner early on. Right fielder Erick Moore made a running catch on a liner from Craig King for the second out of the second inning. After surrendering a single, the Selma Trophy defense tightened again and second baseman Jesse Harris made a backhanded stopped on a sharply hit grounder by Connor Henderson.

Selma Trophy added a run in the sixth on a double by Jimarcus Hayes and singles by Moore and Jermaine Edwards.