By Brannon King / For the FCT

The 8U All Stars baseball team took to the diamond for the state tournament held at Dothan’s James Oates Park over weekend following the July 4 holiday. The state competition ultimately ended in defeat for the Russellville team.

After winning District 11, the young athletes traveled to the southeast part of the state for the memorable experience of representing northwest Alabama in the Dixie Youth tournament.

Russellville’s first game in bracket play took place July 6, and the team took the win over Decatur American by an 18-7 score.

Russellville jumped out to a 7-0 first inning lead and never looked back in the four-inning game. The All Stars led 15-3 after two frames and outhit their opponents by a 19-6 margin for the big win.

Colton Ashton, Konner Trapp and Paxton Smith had three hits each to lead the Russellville offensive attack. Drake Ergle, Brooks Gault and Darron Jones also had outstanding games with two hits apiece.

Rounding out the lineup with one hit each at the plate were Ridge Stockton, Carter Clement, Gavin McGee and Zade Hester.

Colton had a triple and a double in three at-bats, while Paxton doubled twice and the duo of Drake and Brooks had one double each.

Brody Rickard scored a run and had an RBI, while Cade Willis also helped the team by reaching base safely.

After winning game one of the tournament, Russellville came back to the field Saturday with the tough task of facing off against a talented Weaver squad. A second inning that saw Weaver score all of the game’s 13 runs was clearly the difference in the 13-0 Russellville loss.

Russellville managed only four hits and committed three errors on defense in the game.  Drake was 2-for-2 at the plate for Russellville, while Colton and Darron also hit safely with doubles.

The final game of the tournament for Russellville was a high-scoring one in which the All Stars fell to Enterprise, 9-7.

It was the second game of the day for Russellville, and the boys took a 6-4 advantage going into the second inning. However, Enterprise answered with three runs in the second inning and two more in the bottom of the third.

Russellville tried for a late comeback with a single run in the fifth but could not plate more in the game’s sixth and final inning.

The Russellville boys had more hits than their opponent by a 14-10 tally. Darron, Brody and Paxton all had doubles for Russellville. Paxton went 3-for-3 in the contest, while Drake and Carter had two hits each.

Colton, Konner, Brooks, Brody, Darron, Gavin and Zade all had one hit apiece for Russellville. RBIs were picked up by Paxton, Darron and Brody.

On defense, Russellville’s Paxton and Cade teamed up for a double play to slow down the Enterprise offense.

The Russellville team was led by coaches Jon Smith, Coty Rikard, Derek Ergle and Patrick McGee.

The team advanced to state after dominating the competition in sub-district and district play by outscoring their opponents by 134-33 total.