The Starkville All-Stars are swinging to survive.
After losing during the opening night of the Dizzy Dean 10-and-under South state tournament, the team has recovered, beating Fulton on Friday and defeating Hamilton and Caledonia on Saturday to advance through the losers” bracket of the double-elimination tournament.
At noon today, Starkville will face Houston, a game that will place the winner three wins from completing the climb back to the championship game.
“We wanted to keep going because we knew now, if we lose, we”re out,” said Garrett Smith, a catcher/outfielder who helped Starkville eliminate Caledonia 8-3.
“We know if we don”t make it far in the tournament, we don”t get to go to the World Series.”
Teammate Jonathan Evans agreed.
“We had to win this game,” Evans said, “so we had to play our hardest out on this field.”
Reaching the World Series won”t be easy. Columbus and Louisville, which defeated Starkville on Thursday to send the All-Stars to the losers” bracket — are still 3-0, and will face off at 4 p.m. today.
The loser of that game will play in the championship game of the losers” bracket for a chance to play in the division championship.
In other games Saturday, Ackerman eliminated Macon and will play East Central, which eliminated Saltillo.
After Saturday”s game, five members of the Starkville All-Stars gave their opinions about how organizers can improve the annual tournament. The players” biggest issue was with the type of baseball utilized during games.
“I”d go to the cork balls,” said catcher second baseman Jay Stewart. “They have those rubber balls, which are harder to hit farther. That”s why not a lot of people have been hitting home runs.”
Evans agreed.
“All of those three hits I had (Saturday) should have been over the fence,” he said. “But because of the rubber ball, it was harder to hit. You had to use all of your power and might just to hit it over the fence.”
The cork balls would allow Bates Bennett to get his wish. The Starkville outfielder wants organizers to adjust the sizes of the fields.
“They were too short,” he said. “They could get longer from the outfield.”
Smith took issue with the tournament schedule, which was adjusted several times.
“They”ve known about this tournament for a long time,” Smith said, “and we need to have it figured out before(hand). They”ve changed it at least five times.
“There have rainouts. But still, you need to have kind of a Plan B and keep it going.”
Smith was on the field when the Starkville ended its game against Louisville at approximately 1 a.m. Friday. A two-hour rain delay postponed action, which was scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. Thursday.
Evans just wants to play against more teams, perhaps players he hasn”t competed against. He also would like to see more levels of competition. “So everybody has more chances to win a trophy,” Evans said.
His team will have that chance if it can continue its climb out of the losers” bracket to win the 10-and-under division and qualify for the World Series.
Foster Yates, a shortstop/pitcher, wants to keep the games in perspective. He said the best way to do that would be to add a devotion before every game on the pitcher”s mound.
“Because He wants us to glorify Him, and we should do that because we got our challenge from Him,” Yates said.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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