As the 18-19 year old Dixie Majors State Tournament came to a close Monday at Bloch Park, officials are calling it another successful year of running the event.

The Dixie Majors State Tournament finished Monday, as Opp defeated East Alabama of Gadsden 18-0 in five innings at Bloch Park to advance to the World Series.

Opp will represent the state of Alabama in the World Series and will resume play on July 27 in Laurel, Miss.

Selma Parks and Recreation Department director Elton Reece said, overall, things went very well and the guests of the eight teams who came to Selma from around the state, as well as tournament officials, were pleased with how well things were run.

“I’ve never had so many compliments from people, from the parents and grandparents, to umpires, to the state directors on our hospitality, the facilities and the way our guys worked,” Reece said. “All in all, it was the easiest tournament we ever had. Not one problem at the gate, and the tournament went super. We had a little rain the first couple of days, but we didn’t get off track very much.”

Reece added it’s easier to run a tournament when the guests from outside of town are pleased with how things are run, and that everyone involved in the tournament helped things run even smoother.

“It was about the same last year, except different crowds come in and sometimes, if they’re not good baseball fans, they come into town looking for things to complain about, but we didn’t have that this year,” Reece said. “That was the main difference, and that just makes the tournament go so much smoother when you don’t have outside complaints. The umpiring was good, very few problems with them and our ball boys did super. It was just a fun tournament.”

With the end of the Dixie Majors State Tournament here, Selma also saw success in the 15-16-17 year old Dixie Pre-Majors State Tournament in Ozark, as the Selma Dixie Pre-Majors defeated Sand Mountain 4-1 on Thursday, and came close to defeating Auburn on Sunday, but fell 8-5.

The Pre-Majors All-Stars finished third in the tournament in Ozark, and Reece said as those players move up to the Dixie Majors next year, and as the city potentially could host the Dixie Majors tournament again next year, it could shape up to be another successful event.

“They finished third in the state tournament, which was super. The team that they beat the first day [Sand Mountain] beat Auburn this morning 14-1, forcing another game,” Reece said. “So the team that we beat is in the finals, so that proves that we played well. We had such a good time here and everything was so positive that they actually want us to bid on it [Dixie Majors State Tournament] for next year, too. All those older ones that played in Ozark will move up next year, so it might be a good tournament and I hope we can work that out.”