ALEXANDER CITY–The Marengo County area sent two 13-year-old Babe Ruth All-Star teams, West Alabama (representing Demopolis) and Central Alabama (Linden and Butler) to Alexander City for this weekend’s state tournament. Unfortunately, neither saw much success on the tournament’s opening day.

West Alabama dropped their first game 13-1 in five innings to the All-Stars from Etowah. Justin Tubbs crossed the plate top score West Alabama’s run, while Johnny Gardner got the starting pitching assignment.

West Alabama will look to stave off elimination in a loser’s bracket game against Monroeville, originally scheduled for 7:30 Friday night and now pushed back to 11:30 Saturday due to rain delays.

Central lost their first-round contest against Westside of Mobile 14-0. Central trailed 4-0 entering the third when Westside exploded for nine runs. Despite the lopsided score, Westside coach John Patterson had praise for Central after the game.

“Central Alabama is a very good team that is very-well coached,” Patterson told the Alexander City Outlook.

Central will face Sylacauga in an elimination game Saturday morning at 9 a.m., in another game originally scheduled for Friday.

The West Alabama 13-year-old All-Stars are Cameron Barger, Larry Dunn, Austin Holley, Johnny Gardner, Jordan Stone, Justin Tubbs, Jacob Taylor, John Michael Cochran, Charles Jones III, Jeffery Durrett, Ja’Quan Pullum, and Trey Pickett.