Tallassee’s 12U youth baseball all-stars came home to fanfare and celebration last Monday. The team sat in the bed of a truck, escorted by Tallassee police, their glittering grins matching the gold accents on their jerseys. The 12U all-stars brought a World Series championship home with them, the first Tallassee has seen since 1987.
“To see them go out and accomplish this goal of winning the World Series,” said Coy Thomas, the youth baseball commissioner in Tallassee. “I think it’s something for us to be excited about, and for what the future holds in Tallassee where it pertains to sports. There’s no doubt there’s a lot of talent here. This community rallies behind these kids to make sure they achieve their goals.”
Even before the season began, this team was prepped for greatness. At last year’s USSSA World Series, the boys made it all the way to the championship game only to fall short in the end. As the runner-up, the team wanted to prove their capability to win — to themselves as much as the community that supported them.
“It was unfinished business in my eyes,” said coach Adam Bruner. “I wanted to make a new statement, not an old statement. That was my goal, to put them in the position they needed to be in to achieve their goal (of winning the World Series). That was my goal as head coach.”
The 12U all-stars started the season strong with a run in the regional tournament, they were crowned regional champions after a 7-5 win against Wetumpka. Moving into the state tournament, the team knew it was a stepping stone to their ultimate goal of playing in and winning the World Series.
Unfortunately, the ball didn’t bounce their way — literally.
“We lost to Wetumpka in a manner I’ve never seen as a baseball coach or player,” said Bruner, about the state tournament. “The ball bounced off the center fielder's head and the right fielder caught the ball in the air, while we were trying to tie the ball game up. We were in the position we needed to be in.”
The 12U all-stars were unfortunately eliminated from the state tournament from that loss. After the game, Bruner went back to the team and asked them if they wanted to continue onto the World Series. It was a resounding yes. So, Bruner and his assistant coaches, Tee Williams, Mike Ingram, Troy Bush and Clark Burton got to work.
The team went on to fundraise around the community in order to cover the expenses for traveling all the way to Baton Rouge to compete for the World Series title. The team bagged groceries and carried them to shoppers’ cars.
“They did anything they could do to help fundraise,” Bruner said. “Because that’s how bad they wanted to go.”
The team traveled to Baton Rouge on Wednesday and began pool play on Thursday. They won their first game, tied the second and lost the third, moving onto bracket play Friday night.
The all-stars beat East Tuscaloosa 9-1 in their first bracket game, then handled Gulf Shore and Glencoe putting them through to the championship. For the title, they played Cherokee County, a very good team who came up through the losers bracket to face the Tallassee all-stars.
“That was their third game that morning,” Bruner said about Cherokee County. “And being in the losers bracket last year, I had a goal not to get there in any way possible, because I know how hard it is to come out and win three or four games in a row. By the time they got to us, our boys were ready to go, and they just couldn’t keep up.”
Tallassee defeated Cherokee County 13-1 to bring the World Series title back home, ending the 38 year-long drought. Overall, it was a team win and every player contributed in one way or another.
The team batting average was .397 in the World Series, they put up 46 hits and stole 58 bases. They only struck out nine times the entire tournament and scored 62 runs while only allowing 33. On the team is Jacob Morris, Zayne Bush, Logan Bruner, Ben Speake, Bo Burton, Landyn Woodall, Jax Luster, Keelan Jeffer, Easton Thomas, Ryan Smith, Kaiden Heard and Barrett Ingram.