Hartselle 13's finish 1-2 at state tournament

By Staff
Justin Schuver, Hartselle Enquirer
SCOTTSBORO – The Hartselle 13-Year-Old All-Stars ended their trip to the state tournament Sunday afternoon with a 22-2 loss to Taylorville in the losers' bracket. The Tigers staved off elimination Saturday with a 5-4 win over Cottondale after falling to Decatur National 8-4 in their opener Friday evening.
Taylorville 22
Hartselle 2
Hartselle's trip to the state tournament ended Sunday with a 22-2 loss to Taylorville. The Tigers fell behind 12-1 after the first inning.
Hartselle scored one run in the bottom of the first and one in the bottom of the fifth. Chance Partlow and Cody Anders each scored for the Tigers.
Partlow had a triple, Anders hit a double and Seth Wiley and Ryland Blankenship each singled for Hartselle.
Hartselle 5
Cottondale 4
A five-run fourth inning proved to be all the offense the Tigers would need as they held on for a one-run victory over Cottondale in an elimination game Saturday night at Bynum Park.
Cottondale's Morgan Hopson and Hartselle's Seth Wiley battled for a scoreless tie after three innings before Cottondale broke through with a run in the top of the fourth inning. Their lead did not last long.
Neely Kirby reached on a single, Ryland Blankenship hit a double and Lonnie Dumas walked to load the bases with one out for Ethan Rose. Rose delivered with a double to deep left field that cleared the bases and gave Hartselle a 3-1 lead.
Rose moved to third on a wild pitch then came home to score on error that also allowed Terry Wiggins to reach. Wiggins eventually came home on an RBI single by Corey Holladay.
Cottondale attempted a comeback in the fifth inning, chasing Wiley from the mound while scoring two runs and threatening for more with runners on first and second with one out. With Rose now pitching, Adam Johnson lined to Wiley and the Hartselle first baseman tagged Malik Chinn for an unassisted double play to end the Cottondale threat.
Cottondale added another run in the seventh and had runners on the corners with two outs but Rose again retired Johnson on a groundout to end the game.
Hartselle advanced to face Taylorville in another elimination game Sunday afternoon.
Decatur National 8
Hartselle 4
Hartselle trailed by just one run through 5.5 innings before a Decatur four-run sixth put the game out of reach and sent the Tigers into the losers' bracket Friday evening.
Hartselle scored first, with Chance Partlow reaching on a single and coming home on a wild pitch to put the Tigers up 1-0 after the top of the first inning. Decatur scored a run of its own in the bottom of the inning and added two more in the second to go up 3-1.
In the top of the fifth, Kirby led off the inning with a single and came home to score and cut the Decatur advantage to one. But the Nationals responded once again with a run in the bottom of the fifth.
Chance Partlow reached on an error with two outs in the top of the sixth and came home to score on another error to cut Decatur's lead to 4-3 before the Nationals' offense exploded in the bottom of the inning. Hartselle scored one more run in the top of the seventh, with Dumas reaching on a walk and coming home to score on an RBI single from Rose.