Two Wetumpka youth baseball teams have won it all.
Both the 8U Black and the 8U Gold All-Star teams won the USSSA World Series in their respective division this weekend in Gulfport, Miss.
The 8U Black team won the championship in the gold division, while the 8U Gold team won the championship in the silver division. The two teams went a combined 11-1 in the tournament to claim the two championships.
“Our 8U Gold and 10U Black Teams were never expected to go this far,” Wetumpka youth commissioner Matt Fallin said. “Our goal from the very beginning was to give as many players as we could an opportunity to play at a higher level. Because of the great coaching, the players from both of those teams got to compete in 3 different tournaments and the progress those players made in 2 months was simply amazing.”
The 8U Black team, whose roster consisted of Carter Dozier, Blake Labriola, Colin Stovall, Grant Russom, Logan Harris, Josh Carlisle, Bryce Ingram, Michael Perry, CJ DeAlba, Cameron Savoie, and Austin Alexander, put on arguably the most impressive performance during its entire postseason run.
Not only did the 8U Black team go 6-0 in the World Series tournament this weekend, but they also went undefeated in the regionals and state tournament before this. They went 18-0 across the last three tournaments to win the title.
Wetumpka beat Oxford in the championship game, 10-2, while outfielder Labriola was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
“It was pretty awesome to see their reaction to winning it all,” 8U Black head coach Michael Dozier said. “I don’t know, with them as 8-year olds, if they understand exactly what they’ve done. Not only did they win the World Series, but they went 18-0. I know that never happened when I grew up and I don’t know of a team that has done that. I don’t know if they understand how impressive and how big of an accomplishment that is.”
Even more impressive is the fact that The 8U Black team did so without one of its best players. Russom, who hits in the 3-hole and starts in centerfield for the team, had to be rushed to New Orleans to the hospital after a freak accident while the team visited a Water Park.
But the team rallied behind Russom. The kids painted “G” and “4” on their faces to support Russom while he wasn’t there, and they went on to win the whole thing.
“The kids got behind him and said ‘Let’s win this for Grant,’” Dozier said. “That was part of the run. Normally we have 11 kids and have some substitutes, but after he got hurt there was no subs. We had to have some other kids step up. And they stepped up for us.”
The 8U Gold team took a slightly different path than the 8U Black team, but it still resulted in a championship.
The 8U Gold team consists of Case Calloway, James Moore, RJ Welling, William Calhoun, Cullen Powell, Sam Edwards, Easton Baker, Bo Winston Woods, Barrett Taunton, Logan Purvis, RJ Thomas, and Luke Rogers.
The 8U Gold, which was competing in the silver division, actually lost its first game of the pool play portion of the tournament. The tournament was double elimination, and the 8U Gold team didn’t lose another game the rest of the way.
They went 5-0 down the stretch, and went on to beat the Mississippi Rebels in the championship, 10-2. Purvis, the team’s first baseman, was named the MVP of the tournament.
Head coach Adam Rogers said he didn’t think Purvis hit into an out even a single time during the entire six-game tournament.
“It was everything we hoped for,” Rogers said. “We didn’t really set out with any expectations and our goal was to just help develop these kids to be the best players they can be. We worked on it really hard and our kids just got better and better throughout the year. Then they peaked at the right time at state and at the World Series. They rose to the occasion and it was great to watch.”
The defense was the name of the game for the 8U Gold team. Rogers said they made a pretty good investment to improve their outfield, because he knew they needed outfielders to make plays for the team to be successful.
When kids hit the ball to the outfield, what would be a triple against other teams was an out with the 8U Gold outfielders. The team held multiple teams under their scoring average, and certainly under double-digit runs.
The two 8U champions were not the only two teams represented from Elmore County in the USSSA World Series.
Wetumpka sent two more teams, their 10U Black and 10U Gold All-Star teams. Both teams finished in fourth place in the tournament.
The Millbrook 9U Mustangs finished runner-up in their tournament after losing 7-6 in extra innings in the championship game.
Eclectic's 8U team came up just short of the championship as they lost by one run in the semifinals of the tournament.
Tallassee's 10U team came up just short of the championship as well.
