Selma All-Stars eliminated on second day of state tourney

Published 10:26 pm Friday, July 13, 2012

Selma’s Jeffery Allday slides into home plate, but is tagged out by East Alabama catcher Jess Smith during a game at Bloch Park on Friday. Selma fell 5-0 and was eliminated from the Dixie Majors State Tournament. -- Robert Hudson

The Selma Dixie Majors All-Stars couldn’t produce on offense, as they lost 5-0 to East Alabama at Bloch Park on Friday, eliminating them from the Dixie Majors State Tournament.

Randy Moreland, head coach of the 18-19 year old Selma Dixie Majors All-Stars, said his team just couldn’t produce enough offense in Friday’s loss, nor in Thursday’s 10-0 loss to Morgan County.

“We just didn’t hit the ball well. The tournament last weekend, we he hit the ball very well and we must have used up all of our hits because playing yesterday and today our bats were just down,” Moreland said. “I really felt like we would advance further into the tournament. Definitely didn’t ever think we’d lose the first two games. We had even been talking about playing as late as Monday, which would almost get us to the World Series, so it’s kind of a shocker. Things just didn’t go our way and of nine teams, only one gets to advance. We’re just a part of that bigger percentage that didn’t advance.”

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Selma threatened to score in the bottom of the third, but Wilbert McConico was tagged out at home plate.

East Alabama got on the board in the top of the fifth inning when Justin Garmany scored from third base as teammate John Hill grounded out to first base, making it a 1-0 game.

Selma nearly responded in the bottom of the fifth when Juston Moreland flew out to deep right, allowing teammate Jeffery Allday to tag up, but Allday was called out on a play at the plate.

East Alabama kept its offense going in the top of the sixth inning when Landon Pruitt hit a shot to deep left field that allowed him to triple and score teammate Jess Smith from third base and make it a 2-0 game.

East Alabama added another run when Spencer Wood drove in Pruitt with an infield single to make it 3-0.

East Alabama added two more runs in the sixth inning.

In other action at Bloch Park on Friday, Southeastern defeated Bellingrath 13-3, while Tuscaloosa defeated Oxford 16-5 to eliminate it from the tournament, and Morgan County defeated Franklin County 9-5.

Play will resume Saturday at 9 a.m. with Tuscaloosa versus Franklin County, followed by East Alabama versus Bellingrath at 11:30 a.m., then Opp versus Southeastern at 2 p.m., with the winner playing Morgan County at 8:30 p.m., and the loser playing the winner of East Alabama and Bellingrath at 6 p.m.