The Opp 13U All-Stars earned the 2016 Alabama Babe Ruth State Championship with a 16-0 victory over Sylacauga on Tuesday  night at LBWCC.

The game started off as a pitcher’s duel, but the young Bobcats got their bats going and busted the game wide open.

Opp starting pitcher Hayden McCoy was dazzling on the mound picked up the win for the Bobcats.

“He had the right mindset today,” Opp head coach Wayne Wilford said. “Before the game he said that he was going to be the man up, and he sure was.”

McCoy started the top of the first with a strikeout before getting the next to batters to ground out to Lane Ballard at short.

Through the second and the third inning, McCoy went on to strikeout five consecutive batters.

After three innings pitched, McCoy hadn’t allowed a single runner to reach first base.

The momentum put life in the bats of the Bobcats, who busted through with 10 runs in the bottom of the third inning.

Peyton Ellis got things started with a perfect bunt up the first base line for a single. Ellis later scored on error of the bat of Hal Smithart.

Ballard, Ellis, Smithart, Thomas Glisson and Kevin Parriera each had an RBI for Opp in the bottom of the third.

McCoy’s perfect game attempt went away after two singles to start the top of the fourth inning, but a tailor-made double play between Ballard and Glisson erased the threat.

Opp went back to work in the bottom of the fourth inning and put the game well out of reach.

Trey Boutwell reached on fielder’s choice in the bottom of the fourth, and then came around to score on double from Glisson.

Ellis had a big two-run single in the inning that put Opp on top 13-0.

RBI singles from Smithart and McCoy made it 15-0, and a fielder’s choice off the bat of Jesse Coon scored the final run of the game.

“We started out really slow today, but we got the bats going there at the end,” Wilford said. “This team has a lot of fight in them. They come to the ballpark relaxed and ready to play, and as soon as they hit the field they turn it on.”

McCoy was electric on the mound as he picked up six strikeouts in five innings of work. McCoy gave up just two hits and walked one batter.

Opp finished the state tournament with a perfect  5-0 record.

Only two of the games lasted longer than five innings.

With the win, Opp earns a spot in the Babe Ruth Regional Tournament in Hugo, Ok., on July 21.