2 Albany teams still playing
By Melinda L. Lucas
Two Albany Little League teams were still playing in the district tournament at press time on Tuesday, with the third group eliminated after their first game on Saturday.
League president Paul Hamilton explained that he and other coaches weren’t notified that there would be a district tournament until a few weeks ago.
The regular season was shortened and didn’t start until until the second week of June.
“The all-stars tournaments were cancelled altogether, but the Abilene and Wylie leagues decided that we would go ahead with a district tournament,” he said, “We had to cobble teams together with players who were going to be in town, and we ended up with a team in each division.
Hamilton coached the major league team, which lost to the Abilene Dixie Dodgers 10-0 in Wylie on Saturday.
Both the major and minor league teams play in a single elimination bracket, while the machine pitch players have a double elimination tournament.
Anthony Ceder is coaching the minor league team, which beat Abilene Southern 12-8 on Monday night at the local field.
They were back in action on Tuesday night, also in Albany, beating Merkel 12-0 and advance undefeated to the semifinals.
They will probably play again Thursday, but no details were available at press time.
The machine pitch team, made up of players nine years and younger, won the first game 11-0 against the Dixie Auburn Tigers.
The second game of the Saturday double header was also a victory, with a 13-3 win over the Wylie Scrappers.
Coach Dan Key and his team defeated the Dixie Fighting Irish 3-1 Monday.
They faced Wylie Thunder on the Albany field Tuesday, winning 13-8 and moving on to the championship game, which is expected to be Thursday.
Team members for the major league included Zarek Bell, Colton Chandler, Colter Edgar, Cade Fair-child, Calhan Fairchild, Mason McCloy, Brody Oliver, Landon Picquet, Shooter Shoaf, Sam Vickers, and Gatlin Wells.
Players for the minor league are Blake Britting, Graham Ceder, Pecos Duke, Bennett Neece, Slayton Parsons, Ben Russell, Connor Smith, Sam Tidwell, Ace Vickers, Aiden Vickers, and Jakobi Word.
Machine pitch team members are named under the photo above.
