DEMOPOLIS–The West Alabama senior American Legion Post 29 baseball team entered the weekend hoping that coming home for their annual tournament would lead to a turnaround in the team’s fortunes. Unfortunately, Post 29’s slide continued as the team dropped each of their four tournament games to fall to 1-12 on the season.

Post 29 opened the weekend Friday night against Post 208, losing 10-2. The West Alabama bats showed a little more life in an 8-5 loss to a Wiregrass team coach Michael Avalon called the most impressive of the 8 teams in attendance at the tournament. But Post 29’s second game Saturday ended in a 10-2 loss to Brewton, and despite exploding for 13 runs in Sunday’s finale the West Alabama pitching and defense struggled as Tuscaloosa County scored 17 runs to win by four.

“By that time,” Avalon says, noting the difficulty in playing four games in three days, “nobody had any pitching left.”

The Post 29 seniors fell behind by ten at one point in the Tuscaloosa County game, only to score six runs in the bottom of the sixth to narrow the gap. But Tuscaloosa County held on.

Avalon says that while the losses are frustrating, the team is going to continue to focus on playing hard and improving each game.

“We’re just going to keep going out there and keep trying,” he said.

Although the 0-4 record stung, Avalon said several players provided bright spots over the weekend. Honorable Mention All-State player Jack Hazlerig hit for the cycle in the game against Tuscaloosa County, going 4-5 with 7 RBIs. Although the Post 29 defense struggled behind him, Josh Dunn threw well against Wiregrass, allowing only 2 earned runs in his seven innings of work. Jamie Singleton helped spark the West Alabama offense, going 3-6 with 5 RBIs on the weekend and drawing several walks to help set the table.

The Post 29 seniors will try to get the ball rolling again this Wednesday at the SportPlex with a double-header against Lamar. First pitch is at 4 p.m.