Williamsburg Tops

There has been some outstanding baseball played by the area all-star teams over the last two weeks. Just when I thought the season was over, the Corbin Senior League team wins the district and is headed for state tournament play.
Corbin outlasted the Middlesboro 15-16 year olds Sunday to win the District Four Tournament. You can check out the story on page one.
The Corbin and Williamsburg 11-12 years are out, the Corbin 11 year olds are out, the 9-10 year olds from Corbin and Williamsburg are out and the Corbin Junior League (13-14 year olds) are finished.
I was most impressed with the Williamsburg 11-12 year old team. They had one of the best teams in the tournament and when Jared Barton and Ce-Jay Jones were on the mound, Williamsburg was tough to contend with. Barton may have been the top player in the Little League Tournament this year. I know for a fact, he was the best pitcher in district four.
Everyone was talking about the Duncan kid from Jackson County. Before Williamsburg went up against Jackson County, Jerry Croley’s team wasn’t suppose to have a chance. I told a couple of people I was more impressed with Barton than Duncan.
He proved me right with a no-hitter against Jackson County. They couldn’t touch the Williamsburg hurler.
When he was on the mound there was no doubt in my mind Williamsburg was the best team in the tournament.
I was equally impressed with Tyler Irvin’s hitting. He had an outstanding tournament at the plate. And, Ce-Jay Jones will be a force in the future, both from the plate and on the mound. He needs to gain confidence on the mound, but he has the tools to become an outstanding baseball player.
Ball bounces funny
Hats off to Kevin Terry and David Powers. They did an excellent job coaching the Corbin 11 year olds in the district tournament at Hazard. Corbin could have very easily won that tournament. They went into a slump at the oddest time.
After jumping ahead of South London, 4-0 in the first inning of their semifinal game in the winners’ bracket, Corbin went cold at the plate. They went 11 innings scoreless after that. They didn’t score another run against South London and failed to score against a mediocre Hazard team.
It’s really hard to say what happened to Corbin, they had a really nice team, but the ball bounces funny sometimes and it happened to two outstanding coaches.
Junior League
Paul Pietrowski is a fighter, he loves working with young people. His energy and drive and never say quit attitude was passed on Saturday night in Harlan. His Corbin Junior League could have easily quit against Middlesboro.
Down 8-3 in the fourth inning and 12-5 after five, Corbin rallied for seven runs in the top of the sixth and forced Middlesboro to come up with a run in the bottom half of the inning to win the game.
And they still had a shot to win the game in the top of the seventh when they got runners on second and first with two outs. But, the Middlesboro third baseman fielded a line drive stepped on third and won the game.
Corbin had only nine players available for the game. They played hard and played with a lot of heart.
I was a little disappointed in the Middlesboro fans. They constantly made fun of the Corbin players. I agree with my rivals at the other paper across town when they address issues like this. Parents should just watch the game and let the kids play on the field and give them a little respect win or lose.
Name calling, harassing kids and taunting is just uncalled for. They are just 12-13-14 year old kids out there. They get frustrated when striking out or making a bad play on the ball. But, some folks think its attitude and like one woman said, “It’s just that Corbin attitude.”
I’ve watch these kids play for two years now and I think they have a great attitude for the game and I am not from Corbin.