By By BRUCE HIXON Sports Editor
They had to wait an extra day to play. They had to wait another day to finish.
Both waits were well worth the time and trouble for the Brewton Babe Ruth 13-year-old All-Stars, who notched an 8-4 triumph over Monroeville in the opening round of the Brewton District Tournment held at T.R. Miller High School Saturday.
Brewton wasted some scoring opportunities, as it stranded 10 runners on base. That included two bases loaded situtaions in the second and fourth innings. At the same time, Brewton was able to take advantage of enough opportunities to notch the win.
The game was originally suspended due to rain five batters into the bottom of the first inning Friday with Brewton up 2-0.
In the short time the contest was played, elements made fielding tough for both sides. The teams combined for three errors during that time span and two Monroeville miscues led to the Brewton runs.
Grant DeFrancisco reached on an error to start the bottom of the first inning. After Evan Burkett walked and Corey Williams grounded out, Houston Simmons drilled an RBI single. The second run scored when Jacob Cannon reached on an error.
When play resumed at that point Saturday, Brewton doubled that lead to 4-0 after an RBI groundout by Mabry Cook and an RBI single by Jamar Travis.
Brewton extended its lead to 5-0 in the second inning. Sam Sharpe and DeFrancisco both walked. Sharpe was able to score when Burkett's bunt single was misplayed into an error.
Meanwhile on the mound Sharpe hurled a pair of scoreless
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frames until Monroeville chased him in the third inning after a triple and two walks cut the gap to 5-1. Reliever Justin Payne gave up another walk and an RBI single to Drake Martin, which made it 5-2. Payne then pretty much shut the door over the next three innings to get the win.
Brewton got one of those runs back in the third inning, as Jamar Travis singled, stole second went to third on a fielder's choice and scored on a groundout by Payne to make it 6-2.
Jacob Cannon's RBI groundout and Taylor Berry's RBI single in the fourth inning knocked that advantage up to 8-2.
Monroeville scored single tallies against Payne in the sixth inning and another against John Mathieu in the seventh inning to close out the scoring.
The win sent Brewton into Saturday's semifinal game against Atmore. Atmore beat South Monroe 12-2 Friday. The winner of that game advances to today's 6 p.m. title game.
Meanwhile the loser of that game will have to play an elimination game today at 4 p.m. against the Monroeville/South Monroe survivor in order to reach the championship game.
If necessary, a second championship game will be held Monday at a time to be announced.
At Brewton
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Brewton 411 200 X – 8 6 4