The Columbus Americans 10-and-under Dizzy Dean All-Star baseball team will find out later today if it will get a second chance to punch a ticket to the World Series.
One day after losing consecutive games to Louisville in the Dizzy Dean South state tournament, Columbus will learn if Batesville, the No. 2 seed from the north, wants to play in a best-of-three playoff this weekend for one of three vacant World Series spots, Columbus coach Jackie Smith said.
Win, and Columbus is in. Columbus also can reach the World Series if Batesville opts out of the playoff.
It”s not the scenario Smith envisioned when his undefeated team lined up Tuesday afternoon against Louisville at Propst Park, just one win away from controlling its destiny. But the same bats that blasted through the tournament last week cooled at the wrong time.
“We just had a bad day,” said Tyler Smith, a second baseman/outfielder. “I don”t know; we just came not ready to play. We didn”t come prepared.”
Said Blayze Berry, who pitched in both games, “We just didn”t play (well), didn”t back our pitchers up. We didn”t hit real good. We were doing good, beating everybody. Hadn”t lost a game this season. Then we just lost two games today.”
After blowing by Ackerman, East Central, Tupelo, and Louisville two
days earlier — a loss that sent Louisville to the losers” bracket
championship bracket — Columbus lost to Louisville 11-1 and 8-1.
Coley Taylor, Louisville”s starting pitcher, kept Columbus off
balance with his changeup. Jake Kight helped keep Columbus off the scoreboard with his off-speed pitches.
“We”ve scored 18, 20 runs most games and to score two in two games that”s almost amazing to me,” coach Smith said.
Columbus had more shots to the outfield than Louisville. The problem was those shots were hit right at outfielders. While Louisville might not have hit the ball as far, it hit enough grounders that got past infielders to end the first game after four innings, and its success continued in the second game.
“They beat us 11-1 the other day, so our confidence (entering Tuesday”s game) was down,” Louisville coach Wes Kight said. “But when we came out here and got up big, things started snowballing (against Columbus).”
That”s what bothered Columbus” Ethan Bryan.
“It was kind of hard to play today,” said Bryan, who drove in one run apiece in Columbus” games. “We thought it would be easy to beat them, but we just played around and got beat.”
Louisville”s players will compete in the World Series for the third consecutive year. Two years ago, the squad qualified in the 8-U division. Last year, the squad reached the 10-U division as a state alternate.
Columbus was unable to match the success of the 2009 team, the last to reach the World Series.
Or will it? We”ll find out later today.
Meanwhile, at least there was something to come out of the losses.
Said Bryan, “We still got trophies.”
Louisville 11, Columbus 1 (four innings)
Louisville batted around and scored nine runs in the first inning, while Columbus had just one hit in its first two innings to set the tone.
Bryan drove in Columbus” lone run when he singled with two outs in the third to score Berry.
Columbus loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth, but Luke Barrett grounded out.
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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