North Rallies for Sixth Consecutive All-Star Classic Victory

Clarkston’s Andre Alexander beat out an infield single to score Chamblee’s Kyle Kimbrell and give the North Senior All-Stars a 5-4 victory over the South Senior All-Stars at Sequoyah Middle School on Wednesday in the 10th annual DeKalb County Senior All-Star Baseball Classic.

The win gives the North six consecutive victories and a 10-6 lead in the series (first six Senior All-Star Classics were two games) against the South.

The North was trailing 4-2 heading into the top of the seventh inning and loaded the bases with one out against McNair’s Tevin Whaley.

Decatur’s Todd Foster drew a bases-loaded walk to cut the lead to 4-3 and Lakeside’s Daniel Comer scored on a wild pitch to tie the game at 4-4 with runners on second and third.

Alexander worked a full count against reliever Jabari Gayle of Miller Grove and pushed the ball to the right side past the mound and beat the throw to first scoring Kimbrell with what would be the game-winning run.

Gayle, the South Most Valuable Player, would go on to pitch 2 2/3 innings and hold the North squad scoreless over the final two innings to give the South the opportunity to tie or win the game.

Tucker’s Demarcus Taylor, the North Most Valuable Player, had other ideas as he pitched a perfect eighth and ninth inning with two strikeouts in relief of Chamblee’s Linden Weng to get the save and preserve the North’s 5-4 victory.  (DeMarcus Taylor became the first baseball player in DeKalb County to be named MVP in back to back All-Star games.)

The North led early with single runs in the first and fourth innings. Jared Martin’s RBI single in the top of the first inning scored Taylor for the early 1-0 lead. Dunwoody’s Chris Hale’s grounded out in the top of the fourth to score Martin who had walked, stole second and moved to third on a ground out by Yannick Williams of Stone Mountain to make it 2-0.

The South answered in the bottom half of the fourth with four runs as Southwest DeKalb’s Timothy Jones and Rasean Fullmore who had both singled with one out came across to score on a two-out error on the North defense.

Two batters later, Gayle delivered his second hit of the game to score Miller Grove’s Sean Charleston and Martin Luther King’s Myles Sims for the 4-2 lead for the South that would stand until the top of the seventh.

Gayle finished 2-2 at the plate, was hit by a pitch twice, had two RBI and pitched 2 2/3 innings of relief with four strikeouts to lead the South which had eight hits in the game to the North’s four. Timothy Jones of Southwest DeKalb was also 2-2 at the plate and scored a run.

Dunwoody’s Jared Martin (1-3) and Chris Hale (1-2), Lakeside’s Dorsey Gibson (1-2) and Clarkston’s Andre Alexander accounted for the four hits for the North.

Chamblee’s Linden Weng pitched two scoreless innings in relief to pick up the win for the North.