Hartselle rally falls short

By By Todd Thompson, Hartselle Enquirer
FALKVILLE - Hartselle offense produced the hits Monday night in the deciding game of the Dixie 13 sub-district tournament at South Park.
The team just couldn’t produce the runs when they needed them most in a 7-6 loss to Decatur in the sub-district final.
Hartselle stranded five runners over the final three innings in the loss.
Hartselle split with Decatur American Saturday to force the third game.
Hartselle beat Decatur American 17-14 in the opening game of the tournament in a four-hour slugfest.
The Hartselle All-Stars had a chance to end the series after opening up a 3-1 lead in the second game before Decatur scored three unanswered runs to claim a 4-3 victory.
Both teams will advance to the district tournament in Athens beginning this week.
The Tigers had a runner on second Monday when Decatur ended the game with a strikeout.
Hartselle opened the scoring with a run in the top half of the second inning when Jake Whitt came home on a ground out.
Decatur tied the game in the bottom half of the inning.
Decatur added four more runs in the third with the help of three walks and a 2-run homer by Austin Thompkins that bounced off the top of the fence in centerfield.
Daniel Crow capped the inning with a triple that scored another run.
Whitt drove in a run in Hartselle’s half of the fifth inning with an infield single. J.W. Jenkins followed with a ground rule double that scored a run to trim the Decatur margin to 5-4.
Decatur added to its lead in the fifth with a run on a throwing error.
Hartselle loaded the bases in the sixth inning and cut the gap to 6-5 when Jackson Smith was hit by a pitch to force in a run.
Decatur opened its half of the sixth inning with two straight singles and Crow followed with a sacrifice to center to push the Decatur lead to 7-5.
Jenkins led off the Hartselle seventh with a single and he moved to third with a stolen base and a passed ball. Tanner Brown followed with a one-out sacrifice fly to center to get Hartselle back to within one run.
But Decatur closed out the win with a strikeout.