By By Adam Robinson – Sports Editor
Recent T.R. Miller High School graduate and former Tiger baseball player Derek Busby has advanced to the state level of competition in the East-West Lion's Club game.
Busby advanced to the May 30 and 31 games in Birmingham Saturday at Jefferson Davis Community College in the second round of competition.
Busby and W.S. Neal's William Shell advanced to the competition on Saturday as Busby advanced to play in the third round of competition and then advanced to the state competition.
In Saturday's first game of the day, Busby and Shell played with other Brewton area Lions Club players against the players from the Enterprise Area.
The two teams played to a 0-0 tie in game one.
In game one, Busby pitched the bottom of the second inning and allowed one hit (a double) and struck out two in a scoreless inning of play.
In the bottom of the third inning, Shell allowed one hit and two walks and allowed no runs in the inning.
In game two, the Mobile area Lions Club team defeated the Thomasville area Lions Club team 11-1.
After the second game of the day was played, teams from the Brewton-Enterprise game were paired up with players from the Mobile-Thomasville area.
In the third game of the day, the Brewton-Enterprise combined team scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning after trailing 3-2 to take a 5-3 win in the game.
Busby went one inning in the game before allowing one hit and one strikeout in the inning and clocking 92 MPH in the game.
With the effort on the mound, Busby advanced with about 16 other players from the four teams to play in Birmingham.
The Lions Club game has been played since 1946 a representative with the Lions Club said after the announcement of players with Alabama being the only state left to still play the Lions Club game.
Other players that particiapted in the first round of games were Will Waters, James Hamric, Chris Griffin, Corey Williams and Busby for T.R. Miller.
William Shell, Tyler Cross, Jake Cannon and Tyler Nall were selected from W.S. Neal to play in the first round games.
From the first round games, W.S. Neal's William Shell was selected to advance to round two followed by Tyler Cross who was selected as an alternate.
From T.R. Miller, Busby was the only player selected from the round one game to play in round two.
On Saturday, Busby was selected to play from round two to go to rounds three and four and then was selected from 17 other players in the game to travel to Brimingham this week for the state level of the Lion's club game.
Players from Flomaton, Fairhope, Baldwin County, Enterprise, Excel, Florala, Satsuma, Daphne, Theodore, Jackson, Leroy, Millry, Thomasville, Zion Chapel, Opp, Citronelle, Daleville and others were represented in the games with the Brewton area, Enterprise area, Thomasville area, and Mobile area teams over the last two weeks.