The Columbia 8u all-stars season came to an end Saturday night, but the resilient squad nearly battled back to reach the semifinals in Philadelphia.
Columbia 8u started off the tournament on fire with an 8-2 win over Laurel National then a 19-0 blowout to top Cleveland West. However, it ran into a buzz saw Saturday afternoon and fell to Magee 10-2.
Then allowing five early runs to Pike County in an elimination game ended up being the nail in the coffin for Columbia 8u as it couldn’t muster enough timely hitting to keep the season alive.
“If this same group of kids keep staying with it, I see us only getting better; I really do,” head coach John Gay said. “We were down 5-4 in that last game with the tying run on second, so we were just a hit away. To get that far, there’s a lot of kids who never get to experience that. To lose by one run to a team that goes (to the championship), that tells you how close we were. (Pike County) scored five in the first inning, and we just couldn’t catch up.”
Despite being eliminated from contention, Gay said the progress he witnessed this summer makes him believe there’s a bright future ahead.
“I saw a group of kids come together in about eight weeks. These kids don’t play together like some of these other teams like Magee and Pike County that play year-round travel ball. Some of our kids do play travel ball but not on the same team,” Gay said. “We had all but two kids play out of position, and for kids to play new positions like that and play defense the way they did — there was only one team that scored more than five runs on us — really showed me what kind of talent we have.”
The 8u squad featured Caleb Boone, Cooper Brady, Noah Dubois, Parker Dykes, Carson Elkins, Billy Fisher, Ryles Gay, Gil Giles, Johnathan Lowery, Kipten Reid, Braxton Sandifer and Alex Sinclair and coaches Josh Boone, Ashley Reid and Jason Brady.
Pictured Above: The 8-year-old Dixie Youth Baseball All-Star team includes, front row, from left, Carson Elkins, Gil Giles, Kipten Reid, Alex Sinclair, Caleb Boone and Braxton Sandifer. Second row, Rylee Gay, Jonathan Lowery, Billy Fisher III, Parker Dykes, Noah DuBois and Cooper Brady. | Photo Submitted
