Atmore 13U All-Star team runner up in tourney
Published 2:02 pm Wednesday, July 4, 2012
The Atmore 13U All-Star team suffered a heartbreaking loss Monday night in the district championship game versus the Brewton All-Stars, after fighting through a tough tournament and forcing a second game for the title.
Atmore battled all weekend to make it all the way to the final competition, and things did not begin with ease for the team.
Atmore faced Brewton to kick off tourney play Saturday at T.R. Miller High School and came away with a close, 2-point loss to the two-time defending district champions.
Both Brewton and Atmore found home plate once in the first inning, with Atmore’s running coming off a run from Devon Robinson.
Neither team could find any offensive success in the second inning, but would keep things pretty even through the third as Brewton would score twice and Atmore would notch three runs from Nytorious Cooler, Gaetyn Thames and Ryan Johnson to give the west end of the county a 4-3 edge over Brewton.
Things stayed quiet in the fourth and fifth innings as tough defensive play kept both teams scoreless, but it would be the Brewton All-Stars who would find their second wind in the sixth inning, scoring three times and keeping Atmore away from home plate to secure a tournament-opening 6-4 win over Atmore.
The close loss seemed to have rallied the Atmore All-Stars in the tournament’s second game, as they faced Monroeville, and swung their way to an 11-0 shut out victory.
Cooler got the momentum pumping in Atmore’s favor in the match up, scoring a run in the first inning to get his team on the board. RaShaan Flavors followed with a score of his own to give Atmore a 2-0 lead heading into inning number two.
The second inning proved less than fruitful for both teams, with no runs scored, but Atmore got back into a groove in the third, notching a run from Ryan Johnson and a second score from Flavors.
Cooler struck again for Atmore with his second run in the fourth, followed by a score from Tyler Sells, giving their team the 6-0 lead at the end of four.
In the fifth inning, Cooler added a third score to the night and teammates Kianoa Gumapac and Brandon Cummings tacked on two more runs.
Atmore finished Monroeville off in the sixth inning recording scores from Eric Williams and a second from Cummings to give Atmore the big, 11-0 win. Despite a strong showing Monday night in the championship series, that included a 9-3 win over Brewton, Atmore would not have enough juice to fend of the defending champs from earning a third title in the second game of the series, falling 8-0 to Brewton and ending, for Atmore, what had been a hard fought road, culminating in a tough loss for the district championship.