Baseball Champs

Play Ball! This has been the scene for many of my hot summer days. Baseball games. My brother, Robert, has been playing summer baseball and he and his team, the Pine Belt Elite, advanced to the championship round of the State Tournament on Wednesday.

Here I am, the official score keeper for the team, and the official sno-ball fan too!

The team played great! They had to beat an undefeated team twice in the championship round to win the state championship, and they did! Robert was the winning pitcher for the final game! Very exciting and now they have advanced to the Dixie Majors World Series. They'll be playing in a few weeks, actually the first game is on my birthday. Guess I'll be "baseball-ing" it up on the b-day.

Here is an article about the game from the Laurel paper:

L-JC Dixie Majors swept from state title

By Brian Grantham, LL-C CorrespondentLaurel Leader-Call

LAUREL — It wasn’t a good night for the Laurel Americans Dixie Majors here at Wooten Legion Field Wednesday night. The Laurel team was in the drivers seat needing just one win to go to the World Series. When the dust settled, the all-stars from Pine Belt Gold grabbed both games and the tournament title.

Pine Belt of Hattiesburg won Game One, 15-8, and then took the nightcap, 16-1 to earn a spot in the Dixie Majors World Series which begins July 31st in Independence, La.

“We were absolutely focused tonight in these two games today, and that was the difference since Monday night,” said Pine Belt coach Lanny Mixon. “Our pitcher, Robert Marzoni, was just throwing strikes and he was just a good pitcher tonight.”

In the final game, Zane Walley got Laurel on the board first with a solo homerun in the second inning. Pine Belt came back in the second inning to take a 2-1 lead that proved to be all they would need to win the title.

Pine Belt pushed their lead to 9-1 in the sixth inning as Casey Comfort smashed a solo homer. Then a double scored Layton Lott, followed by an error that allowed Brynn Whitehead to score. Chase Norton then hit a sac-fly to score a run from third. Chase Tusant then singled in two runs, followed by an RBI single by Whitehead to make it 9-1. Pine belt added seven runs in the their final at bat to make the final 16-1.

Chase Ward started and took the loss for Laurel as he pitched into the sixth inning allowing four runs and four hits. “Our kids did what we ask of them in this tourney. We weren’t supposed to win a game, but we made it to the finals and I am proud of the guys for that,” said Laurel manager Ross Ferguson.

Robert Marzoni pitched a completed game for the Pine Belt allowing one run and six hits in the title game.