WRALL West takes District 5, looking for more

One team is picked. Time for the rest of the state to pick theirs and try to prevent another hometown appearance in Little League Baseball’s Southeastern Regional Stadium.

Warner Robins American Little League is sending the West All-Stars to the Georgia 11-12 baseball championships in Savannah beginning the weekend of July 20. In the type of fashion established over the last five years, Warner Robins West crushed all opponents put before it in the District 5 tournament that concluded Friday afternoon at the Flint Energies Complex.

This year’s manager is Brad King. He is flanked by 2009 World Series manager Randy Jones and Buddy Deal, an assistant with the 2011 WRALL team that also qualified to play in Williamsport, Pa.

“I can’t ask for a better group of kids,” said King. “We’re working hard on our attitudes, practicing hard.”

That dominating fashion over four games from June 29 to July 5 included 65 total runs and only nine allowed. Six of those allowed were in the first game, a 19-6 victory against Dudley Little League.

As for the remaining three, Vine Ingle of Macon scored those on a three-run home run in the championship final held Friday. It was the only hit of the game against pitcher Corbet Luna, and WRALL West already held a 17-0 lead when the Vine Ingle player went deep in the bottom of the fourth inning.

So the final score stood at 17-3. Luna, in all four frames, struck out nine and walked four.

“We’ve got different styles of pitching,” said King about the overall depth of the WRALL West staff. “I can go lefty, righty. We can do just about anything we need to. We’ve got quite a bit of pitching.”

It’s been a Warner Robins American trademark to possess numerous pitching options, so much so that the managerial strategy has been to use the pitch-count rules in a way that allows all arms to be eligible for any given game. However, managers also know that, when the competition gets better, they may have to ride a pitcher the distance in order to win that one tough game.

“I’ll tell you what’s going to dictate that. It’s based on the upcoming game,” said King. “We’ll look forward and put a plan together. Depending on this game vs. the next game, we’ll come up with a good plan.”

What may also come as a surprise to those who did not see Friday’s final live is that the Vine Ingle home run was the only baseball to leave the yard. No WRALL West player went deep, instead using line drives for doubles and even dropping several flies in front of the deep-playing outfield.

“We’re more worried about the two-strike approach,” said King. “Put the ball in play and make them make plays.

“I think we have a little bit of everything. It’s not like we have a slow team. We have speed where we need it. We should be in good shape all the way around.”

There are 13 players on the roster, and King creates a new lineup each game based on who takes the mound and who’s in the opposite dugout.

King might want to stick with Jacob Pierce, the second baseman, at the No. 1 spot, for against Vine Ingle his first-pitch double enabled WRALL West to manufacture the final’s first run. Blake King reached on an infield hit, and Luna drove in the run on a force out.

The hosts followed that up with a six-run second inning and a five-run third. With one out in the second, catcher Wade Smith lofted one of those shallow singles to left. The Vine Ingle backstop had a little trouble with three passed balls in a row, and first baseman Zach Lasseter made the Macon team pay with a deep RBI double.

Cameron Jones, who played on last year’s WRALL state champions, drove in one with an infield single, and then King and Luna strung together consecutive two-run hits.

Smith was the leadoff batter of the third, and for the second time he flared a single shallow in left. The manager went to the bench and got a sacrifice from Jason Wester and shallow RBI single to right by Chandler Dawson. Pierce ripped his second first-pitch double of the day, and WRALL West went on to lead 11-0 on King’s RBI two-bagger.

Cole Hooks singled for an RBI to complete the third-inning onslaught.

It was more of the same in the top of the fourth, five runs on doubles by shortstop Ben Gibbs and Lasseter (RBI).

For the state tournament, hosted by Coastal Little League, the bracket has yet to be released, but there’s no doubt the first team to look for is the representative from Columbus.

“Absolutely,” said Brad King. “There’s a few more out there we’re trying to keep our eyes on.”

To the winner of state goes a trip to the Southeastern championships in Warner Robins beginning Aug. 1.

“I’ve been coaching a lot of these kids since they were 6,” said King. “Their whole dream is to play on that big field over there. That’s our goal.”

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