The Selma Times-Journal

With first place all but decided in the 9-and 10-year old American League, Dallas Avenue and Pepsi squared off on Tuesday night to find out who the second-best team in the league was.

When all was said and done, Dallas had pushed their one game edge into two with a 22-13 victory.

The game turned into an offensive flurry early with both teams batting through their lineups for the first three innings. At the end of the first inning, Dallas Avenue had the lead 6-4.

Pepsi answered and the offensive flurry in the first inning and then tied the game with a single from Alex Inge, over the head of the shortstop and into the gap, scoring a runner from second.

Austin Farley singled and then advanced to second, scoring Inge and claiming the lead.

Jay Barrett ripped a solid double

through the middle of the Pepsi defense, scoring Farley.

Dallas Avenue began to chip away at the small lead in the bottom half of the second frame.

The blue clad squad loaded the bases on consecutive batters and then used small-ball style of play to produce runs.

Dalton Lee singles, scoring the runner from third and cutting the deficit in half. One batter later, Wes Tipton singled to the outfield, scoring a run. The very next batter his a hot-shot grounder to the short-stop of Pepsi, which gets booted, allowing another run to score to tie the game.

Colby Hayes, Riley Hopkins took two hacks at different pitches and then changed bats. His first swing with the new bat deposited the ball near the outfield fence, cleaning the bases and pushing back ahead. His pair of RBI’s gave the Dallas Avenue squad a lead that Pepsi couldn’t match and sparked a seven-run third.

Pepsi’s offense rallied in the top of the fourth inning and accounted for three runs, the last runs they would score over the next two innings. In the bottom of the fifth inning, Dallas Avenue flirted with the mercy rule, but was unable to push the final run across the plate, when Earlando Oliver was tagged out at the plate on a throw from Pepsi’s second baseman.