By Staff
Justin Schuver, Hartselle Enquirer
The Hartselle American 9/10-Year-Old All-Stars opened the District 1 AAA Tournament at Sparkman Park with two straight wins, advancing to a winners' bracket game with Athens American Tuesday night. Hartselle National opened with a win before falling to Athens American Monday evening, sending the Nationals into the losers' bracket.
Athens American 4
Hartselle National 3
Adam McMahan's two-out RBI single in the bottom of the seventh led Athens American to a squeaker of a victory over Hartselle National Monday evening at Sparkman Park. Hartselle had tied the game one inning earlier on an RBI single by Mitchell Warren.
Hartselle initially took a 2-0 lead after one inning, with Lon Starr scoring on an error and E.J. Turner coming home on an RBI groundout by Zac Pershin. It did not take Athens long to respond, with the Americans scoring three runs in the bottom of the inning to take a one-run lead.
After that initial inning, the offenses cooled down quite a bit. Athens pitchers allowed a total of three hits while striking out eight, and Hartselle pitchers Turner, Timbo Slaton and Jacob Pohl scattered three hits while striking out six. Hartselle National fell to the losers' bracket and played Decatur American Blue in an elimination game Tuesday evening.
In its opening game at the tournament, Hartselle National defeated Decatur National 8-5.
Hartselle American 18
Decatur American Red 3
(4 innings)
Alston Howard, Connor Shelton and Jorden Robinson combined for a two-hitter and struck out six batters in a Hartselle rout Saturday. Tanner Evans and Howard each hit a double and Riley Wiggins, Phillip Summerford and Robinson each had singles.
Robinson and Shelton each scored three runs; Jacob Bynon, Adam Keenum, JW Clark and Evans each scored two runs; and Tyler Cook, Cheston Beard, Taylor Steele and Summerford scored one run each.
Hartselle American 12
Decatur Central 0 (4 innings)
Jorden Robinson, Connor Shelton and Phillip Summerford combined for the shutout in Hartselle's opening-round win over Decatur Central Friday afternoon. Hartselle scored three runs in the first inning, two in the second and seven in the third inning to put the game out of reach.
Robinson, Summerford and Taylor Steele each scored two runs and Shelton, Jacob Bynon, Alston Howard, Tom Chapman, Riley Wiggins and Tanner Evans scored one run each. Shelton, Summerford and Tyler Cook each had two RBIs in the game and Howard and Wiggins each finished with one RBI. Robinson, Summerford and Steele each finished with two hits.
(Editor's note: Due to our press schedule, the two games from Tuesday evening's action were not completed at press time. Please check the next issue of the Enquirer for recap of Tuesday night's district tournament games.)