By By Matthew Nascone
The Atmore 12-year-old all-stars did not win a game during the Alabama Cal Ripken 12-year-old 70' State Tournament July 5-8, but they went out with a bang Saturday night.
The team lost a close 5-2 game to the Monrovia-American all-stars.
Derrick Williams stole two bases and scored one run in the second inning and Austin Albritton smashed a home run over the left field fence in the third inning, but Atmore was not able to push any more runs across for pitcher Harold Harrison.
Harrison struck out six batters, but was saddled with the loss for Atmore. He threw 4.2 innings and allowed five runs on four hits.
For Monrovia, SamTralango, Blake Chapman and Carson Edwards scored one run each in the first inning. Clayton Myers and Austin McBride each added one run.
Alex City 16 Atmore 2
The Atmore all-stars could muster only two runs against the Alexander City all-stars on Saturday.
Brett Helton and Chance Jackson each scored one run for Atmore and Helton and Clayton Vickrey split time on the mound with two innings each. Helton struck out three batters while Vickrey struck out one.
Alex City's Dalton Taunton led the team, going 3-for-4 at the plate with one home run, one double, one single and two runs scored. Tyler Wilson went 2-for-4 with one home run and three runs scored. Tomas Foster also smacked a home run. Blake McClellan went 2-for-3 with a double and one run scored. Cameron Blankenship scored two runs and Marqivas Johnson and Justin Sims each scored one run.
Craig Crouch went 1-for-3 at the plate with a double and two runs scored. He also grabbed the win on the mound, pitching a complete game with seven strikeouts.
Tillman's Corner 13 Atmore 4
Atmore did something Friday night that no other team did during the pool play portion of the tournament, they went six innings with Tillman's Corner all-stars.
Tillman's Corner slowly built a lead, winning 8-0 entering the bottom of the fourth inning, but Atmore stormed back and scored all four of their runs in that inning.
Brett Helton went 1-for-3 at the plate with one run scored. Brandon Metzler was also 1-for-3 with one run scored and he had a double. Austin Albritton and Casey Jackson each added one run scored.
Chance Jackson took the loss for Atmore on the mound, pitching five innings and striking out three batters. Brett Helton relieved Jackson in the sixth and picked up two strikeouts.
Nick Lowe led Tillman's Corner, going 3-for-3 with two home runs and three runs scored. Jonathan Brown was 2-for-3 with one home run and four runs scored. Christian Purvis went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and two stolen bases. Kevin Barnett was 2-for-4 with a double, two runs scored and two stolen bases.