By By Matthew Nascone
Atmore's Babe Ruth 13-year-old tournament team made it to the July 1 championship game of the District 7 tournament in Atmore, but they were not able to get past a strong Monroeville team.
Atmore lost the game 17-7 and Monroeville advanced on to the state tournament in Demopolis.
Atmore could not squeeze a run in until the third inning. By that point Monroeville had built a 13-0 lead. Nickolas Flowers, Marshall Rolin, Christian Swartzendruber, C.J. Pierce and Devante Brown cut the lead to 13-5 as they all scored once in the third inning.
Flowers and Brown scored again in the fourth inning to cut the lead further to 13-7, but Monroeville added two runs in the fifth and one in the sixth to end the game.
Hade McGill threw five innings on the mound and Swartzendruber threw one inning in relief.
Atmore 13 – Brewton 7
To get to the Saturday championship game Atmore defeated Brewton for the second time in the tournament 13-7.
Atmore defended their home ground Friday night by scoring five runs in the bottom of the first inning and two in the second inning to mount a 7-0 lead.
Marshall Rolin, Brett Wilkins, Haden McGill, Dalton Jackson and Gavin Salter each scored in the first. Nickolas Flowers and Rolin scored in the second.
Brewton scored two runs in the third inning and Atmore answered with two runs of their own to run the score to 9-2.
The fourth and fifth innings saw no runs scored by either team and Brewton added three runs in the sixth to narrow the lead to 9-5 for Atmore.
Atmore answered with a strong four-run inning as Wilkins, McGill, Jackson and Salter each scored their second run of the game. Brewton scored two in the seventh, but was not able to come back for the win.
Monroeville 11 – Atmore 9
Monroeville opened up with an 11-9 victory over Atmore. After Monroeville scored two in the first inning Atmore plated four runners to take an early lead. But that lead was short-lived as Monroeville scored two in the second to tie the game at 4-4.
Marshall Rolin, Christian Swartzendruber, Haden McGill and Dalton Jackson each scored in the first.
Brewton broke the tie with a four-run fourth inning for an 8-4 lead. They added three more runs in the fifth inning. Atmore pulled out a big inning in the sixth inning as they scored five runs.
Gavin Salter, Rolin, Swartzendruber, Brett Wilkins and McGill each scored a run, but they were retired easily in the bottom of the seventh for the close loss at 11-9.