REBELS SHOOTOUT

The Hungry Hippos won the 39^th Annual Woodbine Rebel Shootout Sunday at Miller Park. The Hungry Hippos scored six runs in the top of the seventh to take a 16-10 lead and shut down PRTC in the bottom of the inning to take their first championship.

Brad Riley led the Richmond-based team to the win with a two-run single in the inning. The Hippos jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first inning before PRTC (Jackson County) came back to tie the game at the end of five innings 10-10.

Down, 10-8 in the bottom of the fifth, Ben Gilbert and John Manning scored to tie the game. Neither team scored in the sixth inning, but the Hippos exploded for six runs in the top of the seventh. Adam Collins and Brad Giles drove in two runs each.

The Hippos ran through the tournament with a perfect 5-0 record, beating Shelby Auto, 18-8 in their first game of the tournament. They rolled past Got The Runs, 11-3 and defeated Round Rock, 12-11 in the winners’ bracket semifinals. They beat Tri-City Merchants 17-7 in the winners’ bracket finals. The Hippos scored five runs in the first inning only to see Tri-City score seven runs in top of the second.

The eventual winners scored four in the third to take a 9-7 lead and pulled away for a six-inning win. They scored six in the bottom of the fifth and one in the sixth to end the game.

PRTC’s Timmy Truitt tossed a one-hitter in an opening game win over Corbin’s Cross Eyed Crickets, 10-0. Jimmy Hendrickson got the lone hit for his team in the loss.

PRTC was impressive in their quest to reach the championship game after losing in the second-round to Bee Jayz, 24-9.

The Jackson County team won six games in a row before falling to the Hippos. They beat 23 Sports (11-1), SLH (15-13); Medical Mart (15-5) then got revenge by beating the Bee Jayz, 11-1.

They were able to get past Round Rock, 16-10 before edging Tri-City, 22-21 in a seven-inning thriller. PRTC had to score seven runs in the bottom of the seventh to reach the championship game.

Down to two outs, Travis Truitt knocked in Troy Truitt (his brother) for the game-winning run.

Ryan Rowland was named the MVP of the tournament with Jeff Johnson, Adam Collins, Darrin Sutton, Brad Riley and Mark Sutton being named to the all-tournament team.

Timmy Truitt was named the MVP of the second place PRTC Softball team. Robbie McQueen, Dustin Lewis, Wes Pingleton and Ben Gilbert were named to the all-tournament team.

Three players from third-place Tri-City Merchants made the all-tournament team. They were Odell Cosby, Wayne Campbell and Collin Earlywine.

Rounding out the all-tournament team were: Mark Tipton and Jordan Ward of fourth-place Round Rock, Joe Reynolds of the Outsiders and Brad Pyles of the Bee Jayz.

This year’s tournament was dedicated to Gene Mosley and Marc Murphy. Both men had a huge impact on softball in the Tri-County for many years.

“Everything went well,” Director Jimmy Hendrickson said. “We had good weather and a great turnout for the tournament.”

Hendrickson weeded out some of the A and B teams that usually play in the tournament. “We usually have between 28-30 teams and we had 27 this year. I think by taking out the top teams we will have more C and D teams in the future,” he said.

Three area teams played in the tournament with the Regulators going 2-2, Heard Bat 1-2 and the Crossed Eyed Crickets were 0-2.