By Derek Thompson | The Selma Times-Journal

One Selma youth baseball team remains in the hunt for the Dixie Baseball State Championship after this past weekend.

The 11-and-12 year old Selma Red All-stars, coached by Nathan Ellis, went 2-0 in state tournament play at Centreville Saturday and Sunday.

Selma defeated Munford 6-3 Saturday and Thomasville 7-6 Sunday.

Ellis said disciplined pitching was key to the team’s success.

Osegia “Big O” Aghedo pitched the first three innings in the victory Saturday. Ellis’ son, Darrius, pitched one more after and Tyreshon Freeman closed the game out.

Freeman started things on the mound Sunday until Aghedo took over in the fourth inning and shut down Thomasville.

Ellis said Chris Garner gave Selma the cushion needed to win Saturday’s game after he hit an in-the-park home run that gave Selma the 3-2 lead.

“The ball was hit to the gap in right field,” Ellis said. “That was the big play in the game right there.”

Freeman made a big difference for the All-stars Sunday as he stole third base and scored on a throwing error by Thomasville in the last inning for Selma to advance.

“We’re trying real hard to do something big for the community and the players are excited,” Ellis said.

While the 11-and-12-year-old ball players have seen nothing but success thus far in the tournament, the 13-year-old junior Dixie boys haven’t been as fortunate.

The team, coached by Ricky Waters, was knocked out after losing its first two games in Troy.

After earning a bye during the district tournament, Selma suffered its first loss of the weekend against Enterprise. Selma batters struck out nine times at the plate and only recorded two hits in the 15-3 loss.

“We didn’t fair well,” Waters said. “We drew the number one seed in the first round. That was Enterprise and they were the favorite of the tournament. We just did not hit the baseball. We got away from our whole game plan and didn’t do anything to hit.”

Selma looked to bounce back in the losers bracket Sunday, but was handed its second loss by Southeastern Montgomery. Selma’s starting pitcher was Matthew Davis in the 7-5 loss.

“We thought we were prepared for the tournament,” Waters said.

“A lot of practice and the kids worked hard, but we got to the tournament and just couldn’t hit the baseball.

The other teams just put the ball in play a lot more than we did. We also gave up walks during crucial times when they got hits. That was the difference in the ballgame.”