The Screven County Midget Boys enjoyed their home field advantage with a clean sweep of the sub-district and district tournaments en route to the title June 26.

The local squad of 12 and 13-year-olds defeated Glennville 6-4 in the championship game at the county recreation department complex.

“They are a very good group of players,” said coach Ricky Scott, whose team consisted of athletes from another winning squad of mites. “Several were state champions in 2007. They all have grown up through the recreation system.”

The championship victory now affords Screven County the chance to play Morgan County at 6 p.m. July 8 in the opening game of the state tournament. The tourney also will be hosted by the Screven County recreation complex.

“They play very good defense,” Scott said. “They put the ball in play and we play well enough to win.”

Scott said the Screven County team is very talented and the players took the field against some quality teams.

“We really enjoyed this group,” Scott said of himself and fellow coaches Marshall Beasley, Jason Hodges and Timothy Owens. “We want to represent the county well. We stress that. We try to make them into good young men.

“We are looking forward to the state tourney,” Scott said, “and we want the community to support and be behind us. We will do the community proud.”

Wyatt Beasley, Justin Hodges, Caleb Krulic, Tyler Owens and Vincent Troisi helped the Screven County team through the sub-district and district tournaments.

Whatley was the winning pitcher in the championship game as he finished with six strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings. Krulic registered the save.

Setting the tone for the game, Screven County’s center fielder Jacob Smith started the game with a leaping over-the-shoulder snag that took him just shy of the fence.

Screven County got on the board twice in the first inning as Eddie Howard tripled down the left field line. He would score on a RBI single past the Glennville shortstop by Brandon Whatley.

A base hit by Sha’don Kemp moved Whatley to third base.

Jamie Scarboro then would line a shot back to the Glennville pitcher. The baseball knocked the pitcher’s glove off. A throw to first base would be late and Whatley would cross the plate.

Screven County would tack on another run in the second inning as Smith homered over the center field fence.

Screven County would load the bases in the third inning, but a drawn in Glennville infield kept the locals from adding a run to their lead.

Whatley, who finished the game with six strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings, got into trouble in the fourth inning. Whatley walked in a run to get Glennville closer at 3-1.

The local team, however, would add on three additional important runs in the bottom half of the fourth inning.

Tyler Owens begins the inning with a single past the Glennville shortstop. Eddie Howard followed that with a hard bouncer that handcuffed the Glennville first baseman. Howard’s hit allows Owens to move over to third base, while Howard coasted into second on the right fielder’s throw to third.

Whatley then singles in the two runners to push the score to 5-1.Whatley moved on to third base on the Glennville left fielder’s throw to home plate.

A slow roller to the first baseman gets Whatley home from third for a 6-1 advantage.

The extra runs would prove vital as Glennville mounded a strong comeback in the top of the sixth with Screven County in need of only three putouts for the district title.

Glennville would get a runner to third. A run would score on a bloop single to close Glennville’s gap to 6-2. The next batter drew a walk, putting runners at first and second base.

The next Glennville batter doubled in both runners to make the score 6-4.

Whatley was pulled from pitching and his battery mate catcher Caleb Krulic moved to the mound. Smith came in to play catcher.

Krulic struck out the next batter and forced the last batter to groundout for the save.

To reach the championship game, No. 1 seed Screven County won two straight district tournament games.

In the first district game, Screven County defeated the West No. 2 seed Hawkinsville 10-3. In their second game, the locals edged Soperton 3-2.

In the sub-district tournament, Screven County won three straight and none of their opponents scored on the locals’ defense.

The first sub-district game saw Screven County defeat Reidsville 15-0 June 19. In the second game, Screven County won 1-0, and then knocked off Glennville 5-0 in the third contest.

Screven County’s No. 2 team did not reach the district finals. The No. 2 team won a game during the sub-district tournament. In its first game, No. 2 lost to Evans County 16-0, but Screven County came back with a 7-0 win over Jefferson County in the second contest. No. 2, however, dropped its third game o Jenkins County 8-0.