By By Rocky Higginbotham / special to The Star
July 16, 2003
PHILADELPHIA After squandering a couple of early scoring opportunities, West Lauderdale finally got things rolling offensively Tuesday night in the Dixie Youth District Four Major League Tournament.
Not that Devin Adams needed much help.
Adams tossed a four-inning no-hitter to keep West Lauderdale alive, helping his team beat Sebastopol 10-0 in an elimination contest in the second night of the event here at Northside Park.
In the first game Tuesday, Westside nipped Philadelphia National 1-0 to move into a winners' bracket matchup with East Mississippi set for 7:30 Thursday night. West Lauderdale will battle Philadelphia Thursday at 6 p.m. in a rematch of one of Monday's games.
The five-team, double-elimination event for 11-12-year-olds is scheduled to wrap up Saturday, with the winner advancing to the state tournament that begins July 25 in Magee.
West Lauderdale 10
Sebastopol 0
Adams didn't allow a single baserunner until the third inning, when he hit one Sebastopol batter and walked another. But catcher Blake Thomas erased one of those baserunners stealing, and Sebastopol never really threatened.
Adams struck out nine hitters.
His teammates got the only run they needed in the first inning when Cody Miller's one-out double plated Thomas, who had reached on an error
West left runners stranded on second and third, however, then did the same in the second inning when Sebastopol's Kyle Sistrunk made a nice running grab in right field to rob Parker Davis of a hit.
But West scratched out three runs in the third inning, then won by the 10-run rule with a six-run fourth.
In the third, Cain Mayatt's RBI single plated John Gaines, then Mayatt scored after Thomas' single was misplayed. Cody Miller's RBI groundout scored Thomas to make it 4-0.
In the fourth, after a hot shot by Dennis Lewis couldn't be handled, West Lauderdale got a two-run double from Dalton Mosley into the left-center field gap to score Lewis and Jake Lee.
Mosley scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-0, and when Keegan Jones' bases-loaded fly ball was misplayed, two more runs came in to make it 9-0. Mayatt's two-out, bloop single to left produced the final run.
Thomas and John Goins scored two runs apiece for West Lauderdale, while Mayatt was 2-for-3 with a run.
Gus Wilcher was tagged with the pitching loss for Sebastopol, lasting into the fourth inning.
Westside 1
Philadelphia National 0
Michael Finley's RBI single up the middle in the bottom of the sixth inning broke a scoreless tie and lifted Westside to a thrilling win over their cross-town rivals.
The winners' bracket contest was a pitchers' duel between Kenyon Boyd and Tyler Dove through the first five innings.
Boyd got the win for Westside, striking out 10 men and throwing a two-hit, complete-game shutout. Dove shut down Westside for five innings before giving way to Caleb McKee in the sixth.
In the decisive sixth inning, Michael Rush singled to lead off for Westside, then Mandries Huddleston walked before Finley's game-winning hit scored Rush.
Cortez Davis had a double, while Jakwelon Cameron and Brandon Willis had singles for Westside's other hits.
Philly National's only hits were a leadoff single from Dustin Floyd in the second and a two-out single from Kyle Peebles in the third. Floyd was thrown out by Finley trying to go to second, while Peebles was stranded.