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The Cinderella story of Valley’s 10U AAA Allstars came to an end on Saturday. After a win against Tennessee in Game 2, Team Alabama lost two hard-fought games and was knocked out of the Diamond Youth Baseball World Series. 

 

Game 3: Valley (Alabama) Allstars 5 vs Lancaster (South Carolina) Allstars 6

Alabama started the scoring in the top of the first. After a pair of walks and steals by Benton Earl and Cole Carswell, Ingram Smith hit a sacrifice grounder to bring Earl home. Easton Allen finished the job with an RBI single to end the inning.

 

Lancaster answered in the second half of the inning with a double with two men on, tying things up. Defensively, Noah Lynd and Carswell shut down the momentum by catching a Lancaster player stealing third. 

 

Another pair of walks and an error put the score at 3-2 for Team Alabama in the second. Once again Lancaster came back with a single and defensive error. After the second inning, the teams were in a deadlock until the sixth.

 

Walker Wright walked as the first batter of the inning. Two groundouts moved Wright over. Lancaster intentionally walked Mason Landrum, who stole second soon after. S punched his second RBI of the game with a single. Landrum scored on a passed ball before Lancaster could send down the next batter.

 

The South Carolina team battled back again by playing small ball. Another pair of walks and a single tied the game in the bottom of the sixth, to send the game into extra innings.

 

The 10U teams would battle for another four innings, in a defensive masterclass from both. Finally, in the bottom of the eleventh inning, a line drive error by Alabama and an intentional walk allowed for a fielder’s choice to end the game, Lancaster winning 6-5.

 

Game 4: Valley (Alabama) AAA Allstars vs Anson All-Stars AAA (North Carolina)

 

In the boys elimination game, Team Alabama fell to Anson (North Carolina) All Stars AAA 9-3. After playing 11 innings earlier that day, the Valley team couldn’t come back against North Carolina. 

 

Anson got an early lead, with Valley walking the first batter. Two singles and a couple of more walks would see Anson lead 4-0 going into the bottom of the first. The scoring would keep coming in the second when a single and hit by pitch would allow two runners on for the North Carolina team. Two errors a single and a ground ran the score up to a 9-0 shutout. 

 

The first spark from Valley came in the third. A walk of Hugh Chambley and a bunt combined with a fielding error allowed Hudson Whitehead to get on base and Chambley to score. Whitehead would score on a passed ball later in the inning to regain 2 runs. 

While Alabama would battle out another run in the fifth, when Whitehead hit an RBI double, Valley would never take the lead.

 

Team Alabama had a tough draw in the tournament, all of the teams they faced went deep in the bracket, with Team Georgia beating Tennessee to get to the final four. South Carolina was one run away from meeting Georgia in the final four.