Cleveland 9-year-old All-Star Ty Morgan is fired up as he and the rest of his team will be playing in the championship game of the Dixie Youth 9-year-old State Baseball Tournament against Laurel in Hattiesburg tonight at 6 p.m. Cleveland beat Hattiesburg 10-5 to stay alive in the tournament Tuesday.
Cleveland took advantage of six errors and several walks to defeat the Hattiesburg All-Stars 10-5 in an elimination game. The win puts Cleveland in the championship against Laurel American tonight at 6 p.m. Since Laurel is undefeated, Cleveland has to win twice to win the championship.
Cleveland head coach Bill Dodd has been very pleased with the way the players have handled themselves.
“The kids are giving it their all right now,” Dodd said. “We’ve faced some adversity so far. We’ve played after 11 o’clock for two nights in a row. Last night, we started the game at 6’ o clock and it finished at 8 p.m. — thank goodness. My only concern is the kids looked a little tired last night. Hopefully getting through early last night gave the kids a little rest. It’s just been a long tournament.
“The fields are still damp, but we’re playing through it,” Dodd continued. “If we can put a full six innings of defense in each of these games, I have no doubt we can beat these guys from Laurel. All of my pitchers are healthy and ready to go.”
Cleveland got things going early in the contest. Cleveland benefited from five walks and two errors which enabled the team to take a 4-1 lead.
Hattiesburg was able to tie the game at 4-4 in the top of the fourth, but Cleveland came back in the bottom half of the inning by scoring three runs to make the score 7-4. Cleveland added to its lead again in the fifth inning with three more runs to make the score 10-4. Hattiesburg scored a run in the sixth, but that was all the team could muster.
“What doomed Hattiesburg was errors, we hit the ball to their shortstop and he made three or four errors,” Dodd said. “In the first, the second baseman threw the ball away and that allowed a couple of runs to score.
“We made contact, but we didn’t hit the ball hard,” Dodd continued. “We did force them to make the plays, and they didn’t do it.”
Cleveland got good pitching performances from Cross Crowe, Spence Martin and Cedric Gardner who pitched two innings each.
Zach Willingham and Eli Stallings each stroked hits to lead Cleveland at the plate.