The 2016 Hartselle Tigers 8U All-Star poses after winning the state championship. The team was coached by Dusty Vinzant. | Special to the Enquirer

Hartselle all-star team claims state championship

Caleb Suggs

Hartselle Enquirer

While the teams of Hartselle High School spend their summers working and preparing for the upcoming school year and seasons, the Hartselle Tigers 8U All Star was busy working towards a State championship. Head coach Dusty Vinzant was in charge of leading a team that potential written all over them. “I knew when we assembled the team that they had the potential to go far.”

Vinzant took the best 12 players available from the 7-8 Hartselle Dixie Youth league for what was the Hartselle 8U rookie team. “There is the 8U regular team and then there is us. Basically were a team made up of the younger players of the 7-8 league,” Vinzant said,  “that didn’t really bother me though as I felt that we still had the better team.” Once the team was assembled, they hit the ground running as they had only two weeks to prepare. “We practiced every day except for Sunday for two weeks,” Vinzant said. “I really have to give a lot of thanks to the dads that helped. The all knew baseball really well and they were able to help the players out.” When the team started district play, they wasted no time in flexing their muscles as they won the district tournament by winning three games of scores of 14-4, 24-6 and 21-3. This tournament win put the Tigers in a position to advance to the state tournament.

However, the Tigers would face a bump as they were forced to endure a three week layover before state. So, to stay in game shape the team entered into a benefit tournament. “The tournament was actually a short notice thing,” Vinzant said. “Again this is where the parents came in so great as it was Fourth July weekend and some canceled plans so we could play.” In this tournament the Tigers would actually suffer their very first loss but would rally by coming back to win three straight games and the tournament.

With this out of the way, the Tigers were finally State ready. Hartselle made a huge statement in the first game of the state tournament as they defeated Fairhope 23-12. They then turned around to defeat Troy 16-4. But, it would be in the third round of the tournament against Enterprise when they hit their first roadblock. The Tigers were forced to play on a Sunday after their game got rained out. Hartselle would suffer their first loss in the State tournament 12-10. “Enterprise matched up really well with us,” Vinzant said. “We were a strong hitting team and they had great defense. You had to hit the ball hard and hit line drives against them.” With this loss the Tigers would be forced to go through the losers bracket to win.

Hartselle would find themselves at the end in a three-way tie with Enterprise and Fairhope. “We were in a three-way tie which meant we had to coin flip to see who got the bye into the finals,” Vinzant said, “Fairhope got the bye but I was OK with that because I thought our boys would do better playing a game instead of sitting.” However, this meant the Tigers would be forced to play against Enterprise once again.  This game would be even wilder than the first as the Tigers had Enterprise on the ropes before they made a comeback. Hartselle would still manage to win 17-16 in order to advance to the State Championship. “They hit a pop fly that was towards deep shortstop and our player makes a great play,” Vinzant said. “If he doesn’t make that play we probably don’t win.” From there Hartselle went on to play Fairhope in the finals. Hartselle would win and claim the state championship.

With the win the players received not only a State trophy but State rings for each player as well. “The kids knew what they were playing for,” Vinzant said. “We had a kid come into the dugout the last game and say lets go win a championship.” The kids also received something, the fun of playing as a team and being together as they enjoyed other recreational activities such as swimming and eating together. All in all, this summer is sure to be something these kids will always remember.