Ariton High School will host the first annual Small-Town Showdown Baseball Tournament for the next three days. The tournament will feature six local area high school varsity baseball teams. The games will start Thursday at 1:00pm and will conclude Saturday. The participating teams will play in three games each with a time limit of one hour and fifty minutes. This is a wonderful opportunity for baseball fans to come out and support your local high school baseball teams.
Participating Teams:
Ariton Purple Cats
Carroll High Eagles
Geneva Panthers
Wicksburg Panthers
New Brockton Gamecocks
Zion Chapel Rebels
Game 1:
Carroll Eagles @ Ariton Purple Cats
Ariton would strike first in the bottom of one. Aven Cook would reach on an infield hit and later score on an RBI hit by Dalton Murphy. Carroll would go in order in the top of the second inning before Ariton added another run in the bottom half. Ian Senn reached first on a throwing error and then stole second base. Senn scored on another infield error making the score 2-0 after two.
Easton Kilpatrick would settle in on the mound for Ariton in the second and third innings. Kilpatrick retired seven out of eight batters before allowing a single to right field by Carroll’s Brodie Lowery. Ariton would score another run in the bottom of the third inning. Myles Tyler doubled down the right field line and would later score on a Hughes Hammock ground ball to second.
Carroll would get on the scoreboard in the top of the fourth inning. Kilpatrick would walk Skilbred and Bryce Coleman laid down a sacrifice bunt moving the runner to second. Carroll’s Caleb Hicks would rip a double down the left field line scoring Skilbred. The lead would be trimmed to 3-1 after four.
Ariton would run into trouble in the top half of the fifth inning. McManus and Lowery would both reach on infield singles before Ganey would draw a walk. Grant Houston worked an RBI walk making the score 3-2. Coach Pickett would call time and insert Hayes Hammock on the mound. Hammock would then give up a bases loaded walk to Skilbred forcing in the tying run. Coach Pickett then replaced Hammock with senior Jessie Pelham. The senior would enter the game retiring the next three batters.
The game would remain tied until the bottom of the seventh inning. Caden Collier would lead off for Ariton hitting a single back up the middle. Aven Cook would follow with a walk leaving baserunners on first and second. Lawson Leger laid down a perfectly placed bunt towards the third base foul line. Carroll then committed a throwing error on the play scoring Collier. Ariton would capture the victory 4-3 and Jessie Pelham would pick up his first win on the season.