By By BRUCE HIXON Sports Editor
If nobody on the East Brewton Cubs competes against Conner Denton again, his peformance in Thursday's Age 9-10 Little League City Tournament championship game should be enough to last in their minds for a long, long time.
All Denton did was rip two homers and a triple, drive in three runs, score three runs and strike out seven in three hitless innings of relief in the Brewton Braves 8-0 victory.
Thursday's game was a matchup of the two regular season Little League champions, as the Braves won the Brewton side and the Cubs captured the East Brewton crown. Thanks largely to Denton, what figured to be a close battle never materialized.
The Braves (13-4) scored in every inning although they never had more than two runs in any of the six frames.
As it turned out, the Braves got the only run they would need in the top of the first inning when Rob Stokes singled, moved over to third base after two passed balls and scored when a ball hit by Christian Purvis was misplayed for an error.
The Cubs wasted their best scoring chance in the bottom half of the first inning. Purvis, the Braves starting hurler, allowed a leadoff single to Dillon Anthony, but he was erased in a double play. After Taylor Ballard was struck by a pitch, Reid Johnson lined a single. That turned out to be the
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last hit the Cubs would get. Purvis, who worked the first three innings, got out of the inning when he got Houston Pace to pop out.
The Braves extended their lead to 2-0 in the second inning without the aid of a hit, as Logan Lowery was hit by a pitch and then circled the bases courtesy of three wild pitches.
Denton began his torrid night of production in the top of the third inning when he belted a ball off Cubs starting pitcher Reid Johnson into the right-centerfield gap and circled the bases for an inside-the-park homerun to make it 3-0. Later in the frame Jon Ellis singled in Tyler Etheridge, who had walked, to make it 4-0.
For those who missed Denton's first homer, they got a second chance in the fourth inning. After Purvis beat out an infield single, Denton lined a shot into almost the exact same spot in right-centerfield. Again the ball rolled to the wall and again Denton circled the bases. This two-run blow made it 6-0.
The Braves continued to pull away over the next two innings. Josh Maloy had an RBI single in the fifth and Denton tripled and scored on a wild pitch in the sixth.