The Selma Times-Journal

There’s nothing like a guy that keeps his word.

Infielder Jacob Paxton guaranteed Selma would win the deciding game of the Dixie Majors District IV Tournament.

Selma not only took a 9-1 win, Paxton backed up his prediction with a three-hit, three-run day Sunday afternoon at Bloch Park.

“I was feeling great, even though everybody was trying to rag on me because I guaranteed a win,” Paxton said.

Selma’s offense got the hard part out of the way by scoring six runs in the first two innings.

Prattville’s defense wasn’t much help. The team committed eight errors, four in the first inning.

Tournament MVP Thomas Austin pitched a complete game and retired nine batters in a row at one point. It was his second win in as many days after a successful relief appearance Saturday.

“The breaking stuff was working real good,” Austin said. “I threw it up sometimes, but I was hitting the outside corner with it, and they’d swing and miss most of the time.”

Prattville’s only run of the game came in the sixth inning on Matt Perrigin’s RBI single. Prattville loaded the bases in the second inning with one out, but a strikeout and a groundout to short killed the rally. No Prattville runner advanced past second base the rest of the game.

In the top of the first, leadoff batter Tyler Hollis reached base on an error at shortstop, and that sent the wave of momentum moving in Selma’s direction. He scored on an error in center, and Shane Moreland hit an RBI double. Austin drove in a runner on a fielder’s choice.

It was more of the same in the second after runs scored on a wild pitch, an error and a Kevin Aaron single. Selma added one more run in the fourth and two in the sixth.

Selma will play in the sub-state tournament July 11-13 at Paterson Field in Montgomery.