By Daniel Evans

The Selma Times-Journal

 

Four Selma All-Stars teams entered the weekend with hopes of winning a state championship, but only one remains.

Selma’s 14-year-old team, in the Dixie Boys division, won its first three games of the tournament in Dothan to move one win from playing for the state championship. The Selma All-Stars defeated last year’s state champion, Enterprise 4-0, Opelika 13-1, and Dothan 8-7 to start the tournament 3-0.

“It’s an accomplishment just to get to this level and no matter what happens I’m going to be proud of them either way,” said coach Ricky Waters before Monday night’s game against Dothan. “But, they have the potential to be in the championship game.”

In Monday morning’s game versus Enterprise, Jeremy Lee threw 95 pitches — the limit for the age group — and left the game with two outs remaining. He only allowed two hits in over six innings pitched.

“Jeremy Lee pitched an outstanding ballgame today,” Waters said.

Amarian Molette came in to get the last two outs. He forced Enterprise to ground out into a double play to end the game.

Against Dothan Monday evening, Selma rallied from a 6-2 deficit early to win 8-7. The team plays again at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, where a spot in the state championship game will be on the line.

The other three Selma teams were eliminated in their state tournaments.

The Selma 13-year-old team, or the Dixie Junior Boys, lost to Troy 6-5 on Monday night in Dothan in an elimination game. It was the second loss in three games for the Selma team.

Selma’s AAA, or 9-and-10 year-old team, and O-zone, or 11-and-12 year old team, were eliminated this weekend in Enterprise.

The 9-and-10-year-olds lost to Auburn Blue 7-2 on Saturday and Alexandria 13-2 on Sunday.

“We just didn’t hit,” said coach James Spears. “The first game I think we had two hits the entire game. Defensive wise and pitching wise we did a good job.”

Spears said pitchers Moss Jones and DeAndre Chestnut pitched well, but that errors ended up costing the Selma team.

“Holding the ball and throwing the ball to the wrong base when we could’ve got outs,” Spears said of the errors.

Selma’s O-zone team, or 11-and-12-year-old All-Stars, also saw their run end this weekend.

Selma lost its first game to Troy 17-2 and its second game to Underwood 8-7.

“I’m proud of the boys. They made a real good run and we had a real good experience down in Enterprise,” said coach Jerome Hand.

“I told them after the game that they had nothing to hang their heads about. They left it all on the field.”