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Albany Reds win Rural County Title

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By Donnie A. Lucas

The Reds Little League 12U team, or majors, played to the final round of the County Tournament of District 5, winning the Rural Community County title and playing Abilene Dixie for the overall championship last week.

The Reds got a bye in the first round and then picked up three straight wins to advance to the championship game.

“We were really proud of the boys getting all the way to the final game,” coach Clint Chapman. “We had boys 10-12 on our major teams, where most of the others played with all 12-year-olds. It is a big deal to get to the final game.”

Chapman said that the tournament came down to pitching for the most part.

“We really hit the ball well and had great pitching,” the coach said. “We just ran out of pitchers by the championship game and only had nine kids on our roster.”
Pitching is limited to a certain number of throws per week, along with a certain number of days rest in between.

“Playing every day last week really hurt us,” Chapman said. “It came down to the pitching.”

The Reds defeated Clyde 9-7 in Winters on Tuesday, June 1,with Lyle Wheeler as the winning pitcher.

Albany defeated the Synder Dodgers 12-2 on Wednesday in a game played in Abilene. Aiden Vickers was the winning pitcher.

Albany came home for a game on Thursday, beating the Snyder Giants 13-2, with Cole Chapman getting the win from the mound.

The Reds lost to Abilene Dixie 18-1 on Friday in the championship.

All-Stars Start Next Week

Albany is fielding both 12U and 10U teams in the District 5 All-Stars Tournament that starts next week.

Chapman will also be coaching the 12U All-Stars, while Matt Duke will coach the 10U team.

“We will not find out our schedule until June 16,” Chapman said. “We have offered to host some of the games with the smaller communities in the area, but we won’t know for sure until next Wednesday, when and where we will play.”

The coach said that the All-Stars, while selected from the three local teams, will be competing with towns that have six or eight teams to choose from to field one All-Star team.

“They will probably have all 12-year-olds on their 12U teams, but we will have ages 10-12 on our major team,” he said. “The competition will be tougher than the county tournament, but if we hit the ball and pitch like we did last week, we should do well.”

The upcoming All-Stars tournament will be played in a double elimination format, whereas the county tournament bracket was single elimination.

Helping Chapman coach the majors (12U) team will be Tony Wheeler and Gary Vickers.

Members of the 12U team are Aiden Vickers, Clay Chapman, Lyle Wheeler, Sam Tidwell, Slayton Parsons, Pecos Duke, Blake Britting, Graham Ceder, Colter Edgar, and Connor Smith. Alternates are Bennett Neece and Ryder Smith.

The 10U coaches include Duke, Matt Bellah, and Dan Key.

Members of the 10U are Ace Townsend, Luke Smith, Tusiane Togia, Patton Smith, Kanton Duke, Trevor Bellah, McCoy Vaughn, Tank Johnson, Matthew Key, and Aaron Waddell. Alternates are Jonathan Key and Jon Mark Johnson.