VINEMONT – Clay Rogers was given the assignment to keep the Vinemont 14-under baseball team in contention Saturday afternoon in the Dizzy Dean state tournament at Mike Cupp Field.
After they were sent to the loser's bracket earlier in the day by a 10-2 defeat to Marbury, Vinemont answered the challenge and will come back on Sunday afternoon, trying to get to the championship round.
Vinemont posted a 4-1 win in elimination play against Millbrook with Rogers having a solid performance on the mound, allowing the opponent just two hits in throwing a complete game with three walks and five strikeouts.
Rogers received support from his teammates when Vinemont snapped a scoreless game, scoring a run in the third, one in the fourth and getting two runs in the fifth to give them some breathing room.
The right-hander was throwing a shutout until Millbrook got its run in the sixth inning due to a fielding error in left field that allowed a runner to come in from second base after he had walked and advanced on a wild pitch.
Dakota McGraw factored in for two runs for the tournament host. In the fourth, he led off the inning with a single and raced home when a single to left was misplayed while he was advancing to third base.
Then McGraw singled in a run in the last of the fifth, a sharp single to right field that put Vinemont ahead 4-0 at that moment.
After Millbrook got its only run in the sixth, they took themselves out of the opportunity to score additional runs when the batter was thrown out trying to advance to second when the ball was thrown to home plate after it was booted in left field.
In the seventh, Rogers retired the side in order with a ground out to short, a strikeout and a ground out to third. The game ended at 6:24 p.m., taking just an hour and 43 minutes to be played.
Sunday's schedule starts at 2 p.m. with the winner's final between Marbury and Montevallo. Both are 2-0 and have been solid through two days of baseball in Cullman County.
Marbury shut out Sumiton 15-0 Friday then toppled Vinemont 10-2 Saturday. Montevallo had a no-hitter in an 11-0 win on Friday vs. Millbrook and knocked down Vincent by the margin of 7-2.
Vinemont and Vincent play at 4 p.m. with the winner to turn around and play the loser of the 2 p.m. game in the finals of the loser's bracket at 6 p.m.
The state championship is set for Independence Day at 10 a.m. on the Vinemont campus, with a noon if-necessary game to take place.
