Columbus County All-Stars
2007 District 2 Dixie Youth Tournament champions

By DAN BISER
Sports Editor

EVERGREEN - The Columbus County All-Stars withstood a solid punch from Whiteville Optimist Tuesday night as it rallied from a 3-0 fourth-inning deficit to pull out a 4-3 victory for the District 2 Dixie Youth Baseball Tournament (ages 11-12) championship at Bill Johnson Field.

Justin Ward’s two-out bases-loaded double in the bottom of the sixth inning brought home the tying and winning runs as Columbus County won its ninth District 2 title in 10 years.
The Columbus County All-Stars will advance to the 2007 North Carolina Dixie Youth Tournament, which is scheduled to open July 28 at Dunn. Columbus County will play the District 3-B winner at 3 p.m. in the opening round of the 16-team double-elimination state tournament.

Ben Conner came on in relief of starter Tyler Hyland in the fifth inning to gain the mound win. It marked Columbus County’s third straight win in the double-elimination tournament. On Sunday, Columbus County had taken a 13-3 victory over the Whiteville team in five innings.

Whiteville got a complete-game mound performance from Nick Honeycutt and came up with several strong plays on defense.

Whiteville had cut off Columbus County’s attempt for a game-tying run in the fifth inning with a big tag-out at the plate.

“We figured this would be a much different game than Sunday,” said Columbus head coach Russell Tyler. “Whiteville kept coming up with big plays on defense and did a good job of getting the lead.

“Fortunately, we had enough left to get the job done,” Tyler said. “We had our best hitters coming to the plate and it was time to do something.”

Whiteville head coach Mike Slater said he was pleased with his team’s effort.

“I feel like we gave it our best shot and for 5-2/3 innings we handled things well,” Slater said. “It was an outstanding game. Win or lose, you have to really enjoy coaching in a game like that.”

Whiteville took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning when Trey Caffee walked and later scored from third on error.

Two more Whiteville runs scored in the fifth when Zack Brown drove a hard single to left to score Ryan Ciamillo and Tyquan McDonald.

Conner came on to relieve Hyland with no out in the fifth and did not allow a Whiteville base runner the rest of the way.

Columbus County had put only two runners on base against Honeycutt.

Three Whiteville errors in the bottom of the fifth inning gave Columbus County the lift it needed as Tyler and Ward scored runs. Whiteville got out of the inning when a throw to the plate following a Zack Hardin single arrived in time for Whiteville catcher Luke Pait to tag out Josh Tedder to end the inning.

After Conner struck out the side in the top of the sixth, Marquice Antone led off the bottom of the inning for Columbus County with a single to left. After Dillon Faulk hit into a force-out at second for the second out, Tyler followed with an infield hit.

Faulk and Tyler moved up a base on a passed ball. Conner was intentionally walked and Ward followed with is double to right to end the game.

Whiteville had earned a spot in the finals with a 5-4 come-from-behind win over Bladen County in Monday’s third round.

Whiteville trailed 4-0 after five innings before bringing in five runs behind hits by Shaq Smith, Moochie Rhodes and Tyquan McDonald. Daylon Hucks went the distance on the mound for Whiteville.