The Cleveland Eastside 11 year olds and the Cleveland Westside 9-year olds are competing in the Dixie Youth State Baseball Tournaments for their respective age groups.
As it stands both teams are 1-1 in the tournament and will be in action tonight. The 9-year olds will play Hattiesburg at 6 p.m. while the 11 year-olds will be in action against Pascagoula at 8 p.m.
Cleveland 9-year old All-Star head coach Bill Dodd said, “it’s been a difficult situation playing down here with games starting after 9 p.m. and finishing after 11 p.m. It’s a long process with one game per day, but the kids are excited to be here and they have a good attitude.”
The Cleveland 9-year olds started the tournament off with a 9-8 win over McComb. The team had to make a tremendous comeback in order to win the game.
“We were trailing in that game, but we scored five runs in the last inning to take the victory,” Dodd said.
On Monday night, the team lost to Laurel, the No. 1 team from the South, 12-2.
Laurel started the game with a 2-0 lead, but Cleveland responded with two runs of it own to tie the game at 2-2 headed into the top of the second.
Laurel changed pitchers and brought in a left-hander who shut the Cleveland team down the rest of the way.
“We had some chances, but could not capitalize on them. Overall, the kids are playing hard and doing all we can ask of them. Everybody has contributed from the top of the order to the bottom,” said Dodd.
In the 11-year-old State Tournament, Cleveland Eastside fell into a hole in the first round by losing to Laurel on Saturday. The team rebounded Monday night and rallied to beat Washington County 8-7 in extra innings.
Cleveland Eastside head coach Kelvin Williams said his team has been struggling at the plate and that has really cost them in the tournament especially in the Laurel game.
“We took on a really good Laurel team in the first game on Saturday, and they simply destroyed us,” said Williams this morning by phone. “We did not hit the ball, we didn’t play defense and just played bad ball all around.”
Williams said Kamarrian Williams was the hero against Washington County as his single to the outfield in the bottom of the eighth proved to be the difference in the contest.
“Hopefully, we have some momentum from last night, and it carries over today. We are playing a really good Pascagoula team and in order to win, we have to bring our A-game,” said Williams.