County advances to championship

Published 12:00 am Friday, July 4, 2003

The Covington County 9- and 10-year-old Little League All-Stars defeated the Opp All-Stars 11-10 in baseball action Wednesday night in Brewton.

Despite the closeness of the score, the game looked to be a blowout at first.

Opp went up 1-0 in the first inning, scored again in the second inning and let 6-0 in the third inning. From there, Covington County battled back to even the score at 6 in the fourth. Opp then scored three more runs in the top of the fifth, and the county scored one to give the Opp All-Stars a 9-7 lead.

Covington County held Opp scoreless in the fifth and then scored four more runs in the bottom of the fifth to take the lead 11 to 9. Opp scored an additional run in the top of the sixth, but it wasn't enough as the Covington County All-Stars held on to win 11-10.

For the Covington County All-Stars, Josh Dewrell scored three runs, with Fernando Torres, Nick Allen, Steadman Gerber, Zack Lunsford, Troy Nolen, Eric Samuel, Levi Lumpkin and Zack Stinson all contributing one run to the County's effort.

In the other game of the night, the Andalusia All-Stars defeated the East Brewton All-Stars 7-1.

Cody Hughes threw an outstanding complete game, going six innings, striking out six and throwing only 58 pitches.

According to Gary Odom with the team, that's a remarkable feat.

"In an average game, a pitcher throws upwards to 98 pitches," Odom said. "To only throw 58 pitches -- that's going over what's expected, especially for a young kid."

Contributing to the Andalusia team's effort were Robert Woodall, C.P. Rogers, Bradley Benton, Justin Woods, Derrick King, Jay Brewer and Cody Hughes -- all scoring at least once. Dillon Manring, although he didn't score, contributed greatly to the scoring efforts, going 2-3, as did Woodall.

Andalusia played Opp Thursday night in the championship game of the loser's bracket, with the winner to face Covington County tonight at 7 p.m. If Andalusia or Opp wins that game, then there will be a deciding game played Saturday night at 7 p.m. to determine the 9-10 Year-Old Little League District Champion.