By By Zach Brooks, Sports Writer
The Cal Ripken League District Tournament began last week in Atmore on July 4th.
The Tournament included the eight, nine, ten, eleven, and twelve year-old tournament teams of both Atmore and Theodore, with the champion of each age group earning the chance to compete in the Cal Ripken State Tournament.
The eight-year-old tournament was the only team to earn the right to go to the State Tournament by defeating Theodore.
The first game the eight year-olds played was at 11:00 on July 4. They won that game 8-2 on the strong hitting of Dustin Wilson, James Dean, Logan Boatwright, and Cameron McGhee.
The game was really close at 3-2, before Atmore could break the game open in the fifth inning with a five-run inning to take a 8-2 lead.
Wilson led Atmore at the plate as he went two for three with one run scored and two RBI's. Dean was next for Atmore as he went one for two with two RBI's. Boatwright and McGhee also went one for two with one RBI for Atmore.
Tocorrian Brown, Stephen Rawlinson, Zack Wall, Logan Smith, and Tywan Dixon round out the scoring for Atmore as they each scored one run apiece.
Atmore would play their next game against Theodore the next day at 6:00 with the chance to sweep eight year-old team and earn the chance to go to state.
But a win was not in the cards however, as Theodore jumped out to a 4-0 lead after the first inning on their way to a 12-2 victory.
Atmore could never get anything going on offense throughout the whole game as they could only manage two runs for the game.
Logan Boatwright and James Dean led Atmore at the plate in the second game. Boatwright went two for two with one RBI, while Dean went one for two with one run scored and one RBI.
Dustin Wilson also had a good game for Atmore as he went one for two with one run scored.
Atmore's next game was on Saturday at 11:00, and it was to be probably the best game of the entire tournament.
Their was a total of four lead changes throughout the game, with the most crucial one coming in the last inning.
Heading into the top of the sixth inning Atmore was trailing Theodore 14-7 with little or no chance of coming back.
But the Atmore team did not believe that, and as they started to score run after run the Atmore crowd started to believe it too.
By the time the inning was over the Atmore team had done the impossible and come back from seven runs down to take a 15-14 lead into the bottom of the sixth.
Theodore then went down in order in the bottom of the sixth, to give Atmore an incredible victory and the chance to play for the State Championship.
Everybody on the Atmore squad got a hit in the game against Theodore, and all but two players scored at least one run.
Tocorrian Brown, Dustin Wilson, James Dean, Logan Boatwright, Cameron McGhee, Todric Dale, and Tywan Dixon led Atmore at the plate.
Brown went two for four with three runs scored and one RBI, Wilson went two for four with two runs scored and two RBI's, Dean went two for four with one run scored and two RBI's, Boatwright went three for four with one run scored and three RBI's, McGhee went three for three with two RBI's, Dale went two for three with one run scored, and Dixon went three for three with two run scored and one RBI.
Coty Merchant(2 runs), Chance Jackson(1 run), Stephen Rawlinson(1 run), and Logan Smith(1 run) round out the scoring for Atmore.