The Atmore Cal Ripken 8U All-Stars had a rough go of it in tournament play over the weekend duringthe 2012 Alabama 8U State Tournament at Mims Park in Cottage Hill.

Atmore met their first opponent  Saturday morning at 10 a.m. facing the Sumter County All-Stars on field d. Atmore fell short in the contest, dropping the game 14-3.

Atmore looked for restitution Sunday morning, taking on the Andalusia All-Stars in the first game of the day at 9 a.m. on field b. Despite a much improved game plan, Atmore still fell short, losing a close 6-3 contest to Andalusia.

Atmore’s final game came Sunday afternoon versus the Mims All-Stars.

For their third tournament match up Atmore turned up the heat but fizzled just shy of a victory, dropping the game by a close two-point, 13-11 decision.

Atmore All-Stars coach Tim Battles said despite the disappointing outcome of the weekend, not giving up in some tight match ups showed his team’s mettle.

“We certainly were not the best team out their,” Battles said. “But We were good enough to compete in this tournament with a lot of teams.”
Battles said, while all of the kids stepped up in one way or another, several stand outs emerged for Atmore from the weekend’s play.

“Josh Burkett was certainly the most valuable player of the first game in the field,” Battles said. “He has seven of our nine outs.” Burkett also went 1-of-2 from the plate with to RBIs. For the weekend Burkett was 4-of-8 from the plate with 3 RBIs.

Caden Battles went 6-of-8 for the weekend with 3 scores. Chaston Helton was also 4-of-8 from the pate for the tournament weekend.