Indians claim 9-10 title
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, June 11, 2008
DEMOPOLIS &8212; The Sellers and Company Indians took the 9-10-year-old Cal Ripken championship Tuesday night, defeating the Collins Communications Cubs 7-5 in game one and 22-3 in the finale.
The Cubs&8217; Caleb Holtzclaw scored the first run of game one in the top of the first inning on a Jacob Rodrigues single. Collins Communications then turned to hurler Hunter Colyar, who mystified Indian hitters for three innings of perfect baseball.
In the middle of the fourth, the game was halted for more than 20 minutes while officials and coaches reached an agreement on the league rule regarding the reinsertion of an injured player.
Once play resumed, a Cub error led to the first Indian base runner of the evening. A pair of errors and three hits plated Adam Sellers, Chandler Barton and Matthew Dauphin, giving Sellers and Company the 3-1 lead. The big blow of the frame, an RBI double, came off the bat of Matthew Beckum.
The Cubs responded with one run in the fifth inning when a one-out walk eventually turned into a Rodrigues score.
The Indians padded their lead in the bottom half of the inning with RBI singles from Mark Joseph Johnson and R.J. Cox. Sellers, Barton, Johnson and Cox each scored in the inning for the Indians.
The Cubs rallied in the top of the sixth, scoring Ryan Williams and Holtzclaw on a Rodrigues double before Colyar reached home on an Emmanuel Thurman hit. The Cub rally then stalled, ending the game.
Game two saw the Indians plate Barton and Johnson in the top of the first to take the 2-0 lead. The Cubs retaliated in the bottom of the frame, pushing Rodrigues across on a Thurman double.
Sellers and Company then pushed the lead to 7-1 in the second inning, scoring Logan Fendley, Sellers, Barton, Johnson and Cox. After setting the Cubs down in order in the home half of the inning, the Indians rallied for 14 runs in a top of the third that witnessed 19 batters step to the plate, effectively putting the game away.
The Indians entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed. A loss to the Cubs over the weekend required the team to remain perfect for the duration of the bracket in order to claim the title.