Selma’s 11-and 12-year-old baseball team entered Wednesday two wins from making history.

The Selma All-Stars rallied back from a 5-0 deficit against Decatur Tuesday evening in Centreville and held on for a 7-6 victory. The win put Selma in the semifinals of the Dixie Youth Baseball Ozone state championship tournament and left it as the only undefeated team remaining among four teams left in the competition.

The team was scheduled to play again Wednesday night against Troy. The results of that game were not available before the newspaper’s deadline. A victory in that game would’ve assured Selma of playing for the city’s first 11-and 12-year-old championship, but a loss wouldn’t mean elimination.

“Since I’ve been involved in baseball over 15 years ago, we haven’t had any success as far as 11-and 12-year-olds getting this far,” said head coach Nathan Ellis. “This is really big for these kids and for this community.”

Tuesday’s comeback put the team on the verge of history. After relinquishing five runs in the first inning, Selma brought in pitcher Osegia “Big O” Aghedo, who didn’t allow another score until the top of the sixth inning.

Led by a 2-run home run by D.J. Smiley, Selma fought back to grab a 7-5 lead. From there, all they had to do was hang on.
The win marked the eighth straight win for Selma, which actually lost its first game of the district tournament and had to play through elimination games to get to the state tournament.

“It’s amazing that one little loss like that can wake a team up and they’ve just been a machine since,” said Selma Baseball Director Jamie Tellier. “It’s due to Nate and the coaching job he’s done and that his staff has done and credit to the players to be that coachable.”

Ellis said the key for his team is going to be staying focused and playing defense.

“Stay focused and stay disciplined,” Ellis said when asked what it’ll take. “Take what the game gives you and don’t try to do anymore than that.If we do that like we have during this all-star run, we will be just fine.”