Andalusia High School junior catcher Hogan Nichols has been selected to compete in the 22nd annual Alabama High School Athletic Directors and Coaches Associations’ North-South All-Star game in Montgomery.

A total of 36 juniors, 18 on each team, were chosen to from nominations submitted by high school coaches from across the state. The North-South baseball doubleheader will be at Riverwalk Stadium on Tues., July 17, with the first game set from 4 p.m. The second game will follow 30 minutes from the conclusion of game one.

“It’s a great feeling to just to be nominated, but it’s amazing to get selected for the team,” Nichols said. “Going straight from a state championship to All-Stars is pretty cool.”

Nichols is the second Andalusia player in two years to be selected for the South All-Stars. Ethan Wilson played in the All-Star game last summer.

“It’s says a lot about Andalusia baseball and the coaching staff,” Nichols said of earning his spot a year after Wilson. “It’s a great honor to be selected.”

Nichols said that he hopes to play well in the All-Star series.

“The first thing I want to do is to represent Andalusia well,” Nichols said. “There should be some scouts at the games. Hopefully, I can play well and catch someone’s eye.”

During his junior year at Andalusia, Nichols helped lead the Bulldogs to the school’s first ever baseball state championship.

“That is something that every high school athlete dreams of doing,” Nichols said. “It doesn’t feel real until you see that final out and then pile on your teammates that you made it here with. Here it is a few weeks later and it still hasn’t really sank in. It’s just a feeling like no other.”

Nichols played a big role in helping guide the Bulldogs to the state title.

He led the team with a 46 RBIs and finished the year with a .449 batting average with four home runs.

It’s the RBI total that Nichols says he is most proud of.

“I value the RBI totals the most,” Nichols said. “I want to be the guy that you can count on driving in runs when someone is one base. When you look at a players stats, you can really tell what kind of batter a guy is by how many runs he drives in, even if the batting average isn’t there. If they are driving in runs, they are doing a job.”

On Thursday, Nichols received his first college scholarship offer from Central Alabama Community College.

“I just want to stretch my career out for as long as I can,” Nichols said. “I just received my first offer and now I know that I will at least have two more years to play after high school. My goal is to just keep getting better at every aspect of the game.”