STARKVILLE'S RUTH
Starkville 12-year-olds defeat Choctaw County for South title
The situation looked bleak for the Starkville 12-year-old All-Stars in facing a five-run deficit in the fourth inning to Choctaw County.
A comeback was going to have to take place if Starkville was going to win a Dizzy Dean South State championship and move on to the Overall State Tournament.
Trailing 8-3, Starkville found a way to rally and defeat the Choctaw County Chargers 10-9 at McKee Park.
A single by Jack Ruth in the sixth inning scored Mac McReynolds with the winning run to give coat Russ McReynolds' squad the victory.
"We were able to get some runners on in the bottom of the sixth inning and Jack Ruth came through with the big base hit," coach McReynolds said. "He hasn't gotten a lot of playing time and struggled a bit offensively, but came through big right there for us to win the ball game so very proud of him."
Starkville scored in every inning to stay in the game. It had one run in the first inning,
one in the second, one in the third, two in the fourth and four in the fifth, which turned out to be the big inning for the offense.
In the fourth, Eli Dale had the big blow for Starkville with a two-run double to plate Brennon Wright and Drew Williams. Mac Reynolds and Ruth were instrumental in that frame, just as they were in the sixth, by reaching and scoring.
Starkville completed the comeback in the sixth when Mac Reynolds led getting hit by a pitch, then Justin Ming walked to set up Ruth's game-winning hit up the middle.
"It was a well-played ball game," coach McReynolds said. "I'm proud of both ball clubs. Choctaw County gave us a run for our money for sure. They hit the ball extremely hard early in the ball game and got us down. We were down, but our kids were resilient, they battled, pecked away at it and was able to come up with some big hits in the bottom of the fifth."
Wright had three singles for Starkville, while Ethan Pulliam had a double and a single. Dale had the other extra base hit with his double.
The Chargers built their lead with a fivespot in the second inning. Alex Telano and C.J. Clark drove in two runs each with singles.
Choctaw County added one run in the third as Luke Beard reached on an error and came home on a double by Creed Pierce, then it scored a pair of runs in the fourth as Clark had another RBI hit.
In the fifth inning, the Chargers plated one more run when Branden McGee walked and scored, but the 9-5 lead at the time was not enough to hold back Starkville.
It was a good run by Choctaw County to even reach the championship round. It lost the first two games of the tournament, but won four-straight games to become one of the two teams left standing.
"They battled the whole time," Chargers coach Woody Vowell said. "The coaches had a big part in it. I knew we could do it from the practices we had that we'd be able to make a run of it. I'm proud of them."
Telano and Wesley Vowell had a double and single each for Choctaw County, while Clark added a pair of singles.