SOUTHAVEN – It’s been an exciting month for Caledonia’s 8U All-Stars youth baseball team.
On June 21 the squad captured first place in the Grand Slam Tournament Championship in Starkville with a perfect 5-0 run through the competition, then the All-Stars went and one-upped themselves over the weekend. Caledonia’s crew carried on its spree of winning in the Dizzy Dean World Series Championship in Southaven, which began on Friday, and finished its run on Sunday hoisting the championship trophy after taking down the Cleveland All-Stars 6-3 to cap another 5-0 undefeated run.
“Every player contributed, whether it was at the plate, in the field or by encouraging their teammates,” head coach Jonathan Hollingsworth said. “These boys competed with heart all weekend and represented Caledonia with class.”
The season started out for the All-Stars in early June with a third-place finish in the Dizzy Dean State Tournament before moving on to the Gland Slam Tournament, where they kicked their game up to another notch for the win – but it wasn’t always smooth sailing from there. Riding a hot streak of wins, the All-Stars seemingly met their match in the semifinals of the World Series against a talented Lynnhaven team from Florida.
Early on in the game Caledonia had to watch a hard-hit ball sail out of the park for a three-run home run, taking all of its momentum with it as it fell behind 3-0.
“I’m telling you, this 8-year-old kid from Panama City was just an insane athlete and his first at-bat was just a rocket over the fence,” Hollingsworth told the Dispatch. “But they fought through it.”
The blast didn’t spell defeat for the All-Stars and was nothing more than a mere obstacle they needed to hurdle. Caldedonia’s defense and pitching turned up its focus and shut down Lynnhaven the rest of the way as it pulled ahead for a 10-6 victory and advanced to the World Series Championship.
“It was just incredible,” Hollingsworth said. “I knew after that moment that I just had no doubt. I knew that this group of kids, they were locked in for sure.”
That comeback energy followed the team to its final game against Cleveland and propelled them to one last victory on the season in a showing of just excellent baseball. When the dust had settled in the championship game, the All-Stars ended tournament play by outscoring its foes by a blistering margin of 62 runs to 23, which Hollingsworth said is a crazy statistic, but one he’s not surprised to see.
“We’ve got several big hitters,” Hollingsworth said. “That’s one thing that we’ve always been able to do with that team – hit the baseball.”
Benny Barrett, a strong batter and shortstop for the squad, took home the Tournament MVP trophy, and Reed Albertson, Major Andrews, Benny Barrett, Rhett Hollingsworth and Reece Snapka each were named to the All-Tournament Team.
Hollingsworth said it is an amazing finish to an even better season, one that he and the team couldn’t have accomplished with the help of many others, including Caledonia head varsity baseball coach Chase Reeves, who let the All-Stars use the Cavaliers’ baseball facility and equipment on occasions for practice.
“I think that was a big plus when our fields were rained out, and being able to go in there and hit off their machine and (have) coaches pitching to you, and doing your strength training and stuff, I think that makes a big difference,” he said. “There were a lot of teams that underestimated us because Caledonia never has big kids, very few. Every now and then you’ll have a few big ones but overall we’re the runts of any sport pretty much. I think over time just reps and those kids being coached so hard and so long it comes together. Being able to practice in those facilities, when your school has a program that allows you to do that – it helps.
“Overall when you have a good group of coaches and parents it makes it a lot easier to work with the kids. I wouldn’t trade that for nothing. The backbone of youth baseball is not only the kids, but also the support of a group of parents and having a good group of coaches. We wouldn’t have done what we did without a good group of coaches and parents.”
June 11
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
