Gators capture state title

By Andy Brown

Published: June 23, 2008

The Eufaula Gators won 13 games this season.

None was sweeter than their last.

June 15 in Cullman, Ala., the Gators topped the Bama Red Sox 6-3 to claim the 2008 United States Specialty Sports Association 13-and-Under AA state baseball championship.

The win capped a six-game winning streak for the Gators, who entered the state tournament still stinging from a 15-7 loss to the Navarre Heaters in the ASP
Best of the Best Tournament.

“We hadn’t really played like a team all season,” Gators head coach Roy Johns said. “We’d have a good showing here or there and then we’d have a bad inning and everyone would hang their heads and get upset. At the state tournament it all just came together.

“The whole team played together.

“This was really just a total team effort.”

The Gators got it done on the mound and at the plate.

During the six-game stretch they scratched across 55 runs. Johns was even more impressed with the fact that they limited their opponents to just 17 runs.

“All season we didn’t have a kid throw a complete game,” he said.

“I couldn’t get a complete game out of these guys, and in the state tournament we had five complete games.”

Thomas Hudspeth, Trey Johns, Cody Dudley and Luke Ates each earned a win in the tournament, while Weston Jones picked up two wins to help the Gators secure their first state championship in the program’s three-year history.

“This is just great for these kids,” Johns said.

“The team has only been around for three years and to go out and win a state championship says a lot about how hard these kids worked.

“Eufaula is such a big football town, and that’s not going to change, but it’s nice to see baseball catching on.

“Winning a state championship will probably help it catch on a little faster,” Johns added with a laugh.

The Gators finished the 2008 season with a 13-9 record, including a 12-3 in-class record.

Team members include Johns, Ates, Jones, Hudspeth, Dudley, Matthew Dunson, Dakota Hudson, Blake Brackin, Travis Johnson, Josh Bush, Cody Helms and Hayes Spicer.

The team was coached by Roy Johns and Scott Ates.