All-Stars play here Saturday
By Donnie A. Lucas
The Albany Little League will host tournament games for the District 5 All-Stars beginning on Saturday.
Both the Albany 12U and 10U All-Stars will play on Saturday, with the 10U starting the action at 9:00 a.m. The 12U team will play at 11:00 a.m.
Albany is also scheduled to host games at 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday if one or both of the local teams is still playing in the double elimination tournament.
The bracket detailing which teams will play each other was not set to be released until Wednesday evening, after the deadline for this edition of the News.
Local Little League presdient Paul Hamilton said that there will be a concession stand provided at all local games.
The tournament will continue until Saturday, June 26, but games played later next week are scheduled to be played in Abilene.
“We can always use volunteers to help with our local games,” Hamilton said. “It takes more people to hold games here than most people realize.”
Anyone interested can contact Hamilton or one of the coaches of the local teams to volunteer.
Albany is fielding both 12U and 10U teams in the District 5 All-Stars Tournament that starts next week.
Clint Chapman will be coaching the 12U All-Stars, while Matt Duke will coach the 10U team.
Chapman 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 only 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 was, but if we hit the ball and pitch like we did last week, we should do well.”
Assisting Chapman with coaching the majors (12U) team are Tony Wheeler and Gary Vickers. Team members 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 Townson, Luke Smith, Tusiane Togia, Patton Smith, Kanton Duke, Trevor Bellah, McCoy Vaughn, Tank Johnson, Matthew Key, and Aaron Waddell. Alternates are Jonathan Key and John Mark Johnson.
Machine Pitch Results
Albany also hosted a machine-pitch tournament last week. Two Albany teams were entered, both advancing to the final four.
Albany 1, coached by Dan Key, defeated Teagan Brown’s Albany 2 team in the semifinals to advance to the championship game.
The Albany 1 team lost to Wylie in the last inning of the final.
