Roderick Mitchell
The Selma Times-Journal

The 9 and 10-year-old Thomasville All-Stars held on to defeat the Selma National League 8-4 in the first round of district play Friday.

Thomasville came out strong after an early homerun by Javien Johnson. Unfortunately for Selma, Johnson’s homerun was only part of a big start by Thomasville, who jumped out to a 6-0 lead after two innings of play.

“We started out pretty well with Johnson hitting that home run,” Thomasville coach Clay Thompson said.

In the third inning, Selma replaced starting pitcher Osagie Aghedo with Cade Whitaker, who had thrown a no-hitter in his last game pitched. Whitaker wasn’t able to slow Thomasville down either, as two more runs scored to make the score 8-0.

In the sixth inning, Selma finally made a push.

Holt Utsey and Matthew Free crossed the plate to bring the score to 8-4, but those runs were too little, too late. Selma was unable to continue its rally, as Thomasville closed out the win.