VALDOSTA —
Two local youth All-Star teams will pursue state championships in the next few days.
The 9-year-old and 11-year-old All-Star teams from the Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks and Recreation Authority will compete in the Dizzy Dean Baseball state tournaments, which begin today.
The tournaments are double elimination. When a team loses a game, it moves into the loser’s bracket; when it loses again, the team is eliminated from the tournament. There are 16 teams in each tournament.
The 11-year-old All-Stars will make the long drive to Rock Springs, which is about 20 miles south of the Tennessee border. Their first game is tonight, when they face South Cherokee at 6 p.m.
The members of the 11-year-old All-Star team are: Seth Kipper, Hunter Teagler, John Mark Dawson, Dalton Smith, Dalton Rizer, Kaid Parsons, Christopher Scarborough, Seth Weeks, Reid Wilcher and Easton Willis.
“We’ve got 10 great kids,” head coach Scott Willis said. “They’re probably better kids than they are ballplayers, and to me that’s more important. But they’re great ballplayers, too — they’re All-Stars — and they’ve earned the right to be here. I’m extremely proud of how hard they’ve worked. They’ve come a long way in a very short time. (The players) have worked their tails off, and they are a better ball team today than they were a month ago, when we started.”
“We’re going to go up and bust our tail, and try to bring home some hardware,” he added. “We’re going to go up, have fun, learn something and play hard. We may go up and play (only two games), but we’re going to give it everything we’ve got.”
Willis, Ronnie Weeks and Lance Wilcher are the coaches.
Pitching is very important in the state tournament, and Willis says his team has several reliable pitchers.
“We’ve got seven pitchers that can throw strikes out of 10 (players), so that’s pretty good. It puts us in good shape pitcher-wise,” Willis said.
The coach also says the team can hit the ball well.
“We’ve got some sticks,” Willis said. “Since we’ve started All-Stars, we’ve got five players on our team that have hit their first home runs ever. ... One through 10 is solid bats.”
Willis said the team has improved a lot on defense.
“Defense was our biggest struggle going into these scrimmages that we played. We really worked hard, and they’re starting to sew that up and get it where it needs to be,” he said. “I personally think hitting-wise, we’ll do good. If we can get our defense to be firm and do what it’s capable of doing, we’ll be tough to beat.”
“We’re a solid ball team,” he added. “I can’t tell you how proud I am of these boys.”
The 9-year-olds will travel to Canton, at the north end of metro Atlanta, for their state tournament. The Attack begin the tournament today at 8 p.m. against the Eastside Thunder.
“They’re ready to play,” head coach Jason Hamsley said.
The 9-year-old team members are: Colby McGee, Ty Wilkes, Cade Ply, Tommy Davis, Wyatt Willis, McCage Pruitt, Austin Hancock, Harrison Hamsley, Reed Reagin, Pate Hogan and Dalton Rumph.
“They’re a good group of kids,” Coach Hamsley said. “We’ve worked hard. We’ve probably practiced almost every day. ... There’s some stiff competition up there, but we feel like we can play with them.”
Hamsley, Dr. Ben Hogan, Dr. Ron Reagin and Kevin Rumph Jr. are the coaches.
Hamsley believes he has three or four reliable pitchers, and a few other players that can also pitch.
“We’ve probably got a good corps of about three or four of them that we can count on, that are going to throw strikes about every time,” he said. “The three or four pitchers that pitched all year, they’re pretty stout pitchers. The other ones we’ve been trying to work with a lot, and they’ve come a long way.”
Hamsley says he has some good hitters.
“We’ve got a good corps of hitters,” Hamsley said. “We’ve got a few kids that bunt real well, we’ve got some kids that crush the ball and we’ve got some kids that are going to make contact every time.”
When the team is in the field, “We’ve got a good steady defense,” according to Hamsley.
If the teams do well at the state tournament, they might qualify for the Dizzy Dean World Series, which takes place in July in Southaven, Miss.
Both Willis and Hamsley expressed gratitude to the people of the local community for the support they’ve given their teams. Both the 9-year-old team and the 11-year-old team were able to raise a significant amount of money to offset some of the costs of playing in the tournament.
“We want to thank all of the people who have supported us financially,” Willis said. “Different businesses throughout the community (have donated), trying to help out. It’s going to help us pay for (our expenses). A big thanks to all.”
“It’s real (nice) how the community does this, especially for the kids,” Hamsley added.
Local Sports
Related Photos
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Ed Hooper | The Valdosta Daily Times Colby McGee, of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks and Recreation’s 9-year old All-Star team, squares to bunt during a scrimmage game Wednesday night at the Vallotton Youth Complex.
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Ed Hooper | The Valdosta Daily Times Ty Wilkes throws a pitch during Wednesday night’s scrimmage at the Vallotton Youth Complex.
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