Local all-stars defeat Ripley, fall to Halls

The Dyersburg Dixie Youth 14-year-old all-stars opened the 2009 district tournament on a hot Friday night with a matchup against Ripley.

Dyersburg knocked off Ripley 10-1 before dropping the second-round matchup to a fundamentally solid Halls team 3-2.

"We came out ready to play last night, but the guys thought all they had to do today was show up," said Dyersburg head coach Kevin Brooks. "They have to come out and want it -- no one is going to give it to them."

Dyersburg's Alex Franks took the mound for the home team in the opening-round matchup against Ripley on Friday, and the hard-throwing righty kept the Ripley bats at bay during his three innings of work.

After Franks set down Ripley in order in the top half of the first inning, the Dyersburg bats came alive in the bottom half.

Dylan Walters and Ethan Ballard connected on RBI-singles in the first inning, which gave Dyersburg an early advantage right out of the gate.

Franks continued to cruise in the second inning, and Hunter Stanfield connected on an RBI-single in the bottom half of the frame, which pushed Dyersburg's lead to 3-0.

Ballard took over on the mound with two outs in the third inning, and after the right struck out the final batter in the top half, he connected on an RBI-double in the bottom half, which stretched Dyersburg's lead to 4-0.

Dyersburg struck for six runs in the bottom half of the fourth inning on RBI-hits by Logan Brown, T.J. Daniels, Beau Brooks, and Stanfield.

Ballard continued to cruise for the remainder of the game, as Dyersburg cruised to an easy 10-1 victory.

"We got one of the most talented teams out of Dyersburg in the past seven years," said Brooks. "Our pitching is in order, but we got to come out and hit better than we did today."

As potent as Dyersburg's bats were on Friday night, things went south at the plate for the home squad on Saturday morning.

After jumping out to a quick 1-0 lead in the first, the Dyersburg bats went dead, as they were held to just one run over the next six innings.

Halls put together solo runs in the first, second and the fourth innings to sneak past Dyersburg 3-2.

Ballard and Daniel Warren picked up the only two RBIs on the day for Dyersburg, as Halls' defense and great play from Chism Vaughn led to the one-run victory.

Dyersburg faced Ripley late Saturday night with the winner scheduled to play Halls today at 2 p.m. for the district championship.