Athens Tournament on deck for the Bears
By Chad Wilson Editor

Chad Wilson Photo During the third inning of the Whitehouse Tournament Brownsboro senior Keaton Parsell launched this two-run homerun to put the Bears ahead 4-3

Today at 12:30pm the varsity Bears will face off against the Crandall Pirates in round one of the 2008 Athens Baseball Tournament. All games will be played at the Athens High School baseball field.

If the Bears defeat the Pirates they will play on Friday at 3:00pm. If they lose they will play at 10:00am Friday. The championship game will be played at 5:30pm Saturday.

Last week the Bears won one game in tournament play while losing four games.

While losing hurts, Bears' head coach Joe Fleming has his team focused on the most important part of the season, District 14-3A play.

Playing in Lindale last Tuesday the Bears fell to the Class 4A Eagles 14-4.

Brownsboro scored two runs in the top of the first inning before the Eagles rallied back to score seven runs in the bottom of the second inning.

Collin Wilson, Brad McDonald, Ryan Epperson, Daniel Suggs, Jeremy Monroe and Brett Tidwell all record a hit for the Bears in the loss.

On Thursday the Bears opened up play in the Whitehouse Tournament against Central Heights under very windy conditions.

Collin Wilson led off the game with a bloop single to center field before stealing second base. Wilson advanced to third on a pass ball before scoring on a throwing error. Brad McDonald crossed the plate later in the inning on another pass ball.

The Central Heights Blue Devils rallied back in the bottom half of the first inning scoring three runs on a homerun to centerfield.

Keaton Parsell put the Bears back in the lead, 4-3, in the third inning as he homered to right center field. Parsell's tworun homerun was the first homerun of the season for the Bears.

Once again the Blue Devils rallied back in the bottom half of the inning as they tied the game at four on a homerun to left field.

With one out in the top of the fourth inning Brett Tidwell was hit by a pitch before Bret Ralson singled to left field. Ryan Cawthon singled to right to load the bases for Wilson.

Wilson drew a walk, scoring Tidwell from third to give the Bears a one-run lead, 5-4.

On three hits the Devils re

gained the lead in the fifth inning 6-5.

Tidwell led off the sixth inning with a double for the Bears before Ralson singled to short. Austin Adair was brought into the game to pinch run for Ralson.

With runners on the corners the Bears attempted a double steal. Both runners advanced one base as Tidwell scored to tie the game at six.

Adair advanced to third on a throwing error before scoring on a sacrafice bunt by Cawthon to give the Bears a 7-6 lead.

As the teams began play in the sixth inning the umpires announced the time had expired on the game and that the teams would finish the inning.

Brownsboro recorded two quick outs before the Devils made one final comeback.

With a runnner on first base and two outs the Devils stole second base. A routine play to short stop was thrown over the firstbaseman's head allowing the runner from second to score and tie the game.

The next Blue Devil at bat singled to deep centerfield to drive in the winning run.

Brownsboro totaled 10 hits in the game against a team that is a perennial playoff team.

After a short break the Bears played Whitehouse. The Wildcats won the game 5-9 despite a 3-run homerun by Parsell in the fifth inning. For the second game in a row the Bears totaled 10 hits.

Playing Paris on Friday the Bears picked up their only win of the week by the score of 4-1. Parsell was the winning pitcher as he struck out 10 batters in 7-innings of work.

The Bears had nine hits in the game including two by Ryan Smith and Collin Wilson. Smith had two stolen bases in the game.

On Saturday the Bears played Paris again, this time losing 6-5. Brownsboro totaled eight hits in the game.