TOURNAMENT TIME

 Don House Field will be the site of the 2011 District Four Junior League (13-14) Baseball Tournament this week with the winner advancing to the Kentucky Junior League State Tournament.

The tournament got underway Tuesday evening with Burnside taking on North Laurel and Tri-City battling Hazard. The winners’ bracket semifinal is scheduled for this afternoon with Corbin taking on the winner of the Burnside-North Laurel game at 6 p.m. Wayne County will play the winner of the Tri-City-Hazard game at 8 p.m;

The losers’ bracket will be played Thursday at 6 and 8 p.m. with the winners bracket finals set for Friday at 6 p.m.

The championship game is scheduled for Saturday at 6 p.m.

“We have as good of a chance as anybody in the tournament,” said Corbin Coach C. E. Brittain. “We just need to play good defense and hit the ball.”

Coach Gary Helton said, “North Laurel is the team to beat. They have an excellent Little League program right now and all of their teams are tough.”

Brittain said Corbin would use a variety of pitchers on the mound with Andrew Jones, Zack Ingle and Corey Ledington leading the way. “We will use six or seven pitchers,” Brittain said.

“None of them will strike out a lot of hitters, we have to make defensive plays behind them,” Brittain said.

The veteran coach hopes his team will start hitting the ball. “That is something we have not done a real good job of this summer,” he added.

The 14-player roster includes: John Bridges, Andrew Jones, Corey Ledington, Austin O’Neil, Kyler Allen, Nathan Skinner, Jaxon Stewart, John Mark Cushman, Conner Hicks, Braden Sevier, Peyton Buford, Zack Ingle, Tanner Barnes and Ethan Wilson.

“Everybody needs to come out and support this team,” added Brittain.

Note: Corbin dropped their first game to North Laurel and will play Tri-Cities Thursday night at 6 p.m.