Dizzy Dean crowns District 1 baseball champs
Teams from Murray County won three of the five Dizzy Dean District 1 baseball tournaments last weekend, June 18-19, but the Catoosa-Walker County area was able to claim the other two championships.
The first of those titles came at the Fort Oglethorpe Recreation fields where the 6-year-old Chickamauga All-Stars beat out four other squads to win the district crown.
Chickamauga beat Catoosa (Hackett) and Dade County in pool play on Saturday before taking down Catoosa (Tortoso) in its first single elimination bracket game on Sunday.
Chickamauga, the No. 2 seed, met up with the topseeded Fort Oglethorpe Thunder in the championship game. The Thunder knocked off both Catoosa teams in pool play before a win over Dade County to start bracket play.
And when all the dust had finally settled, it was Chickamauga taking the title in a very competitive game.
However, Fort Oglethorpe got the better of Chickamauga in the 12-year-old district title game in Rock Spring on Sunday afternoon.
Fort Oglethorpe’s Young Guns defeated the Rock Spring Mustangs in a pool game on Saturday before squeezing past the Trojans by just one run in another pool game. Chickamauga began pool play on Saturday with a narrow win over Murray County.
Top-seeded Fort Oglethorpe beat fourth-seeded Rock Spring in one semifinal, while Chickamauga handled Murray County in the other semifinal. The title game was another close one, but Fort Oglethorpe was once again able to pull out the victory.
The teams from Murray County made themselves at home in Trenton in the 7-year-old and 8-year-old tournaments.
In the 7-year-old division, Murray County defeated Dade County in the finals after Dade knocked off Rock Spring in a semifinal match up. Then in the 8-year-old division, top-seeded Murray County defeated sixthseeded Dade County to advance to the finals.
The North Georgia Outlaws defeated the Catoosa Crush in a bracket game, while Chickamauga received a forfeit victory over Rock Spring. Chickamauga followed up with a win over the Outlaws in the semis, but fell to Murray County in the championship clash later that night.
And in the 9-and-10-yearold division, which was played in Boynton, Murray County’s 10U squad defeated the Murray County 9U team to advance to the finals.
In bracket play on Sunday, fourth-seeded Rock Spring defeated fifth seed Catoosa (Hayes), but fell to top-seeded Chickamauga in another semifinal contest. Chickamauga, whose roster was primarily made up of 9-year-olds, fell to the older Murray County Warriors in the championship game.
Three of the Dizzy Dean North Georgia State tournaments were played this past weekend. The 7-yearold tournament was held in Carroll County, Fort Oglethorpe hosted the 9-yearold tournament, while the 11-year-old tournament was played in Marietta and hosted by Oregon Park.
No teams from Catoosa or Walker County participated in the tournaments.
The remaining state tournaments are slated to begin on Thursday of this week. Canton will host the 5-year-old, 6-year-old, 8-year-old and 10-year-old tournaments, while Rock Spring will serve as the host for the 12-yearold tournament.