The Alexander City Outlook

Lake Martin Classic starts next week

The 15th edition of the Lake Martin Classic gets under way on Monday, when 16 teams will get together for a week-long stretch of baseball at the Sportplex and at Central Alabama Community College.

For the Benjamin Russell baseball team, which has won six of its last seven contests, the tournament will be the last chance to tune up before it begins what promises to be a difficult area slate. Auburn (13-4) and Wetumpka (11-4), the two chief rivals for BRHS in Class 6A, Area 8, debuted at No. 5 and No. 8 in the initial ASWA poll released this week.

The Cats will take on the No. 8 Indians in the area opener in the first game following the classic, which started in 1996.

But, before Richy Brooks and company focus on that, they’ll look to have a strong outing next week. BRHS will take on Chilton County, Etowah, Gadsden and Smiths Station on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, hoping to secure a spot in the finals Thursday.

Brooks said he wants to have all the spots on the field sewed up by the end of the classic.

“We definitely want to use next week to help solidify the line-up and answer any of the questions we might have left,” said Brooks, whose team is 10-3. “By the end of it, we’ll have played nearly 20 games. That’s enough time to have things figured out.

“We always want to perform well (at the Lake Martin Classic), and this year it’s important to do that, especially with area coming up and us having two teams from ours in the top 10.”

This year’s field of teams appears to be a strong one, as three teams enter next week ranked. Beauregard, the defending champions, is No. 7 in 5A, Cleburne County is fifth in 4A and Westbrook Christian is No. 9 in 2A. Several others have winning records, including Etowah, Tallassee, Briarwood and Sylacauga.

“I know it is (a tough field),” Brooks said. “All these schools are traditionally strong at baseball, and this year is no different.”

The Dadeville Tigers (7-10) head into next week after a split with Childersburg. Head coach Randy Nolen said those two games were two of the better performances of the year for his club.

“I was tickled after the games because I thought we played for two complete ball games,” Nolen said. “We made it through the day playing the game like it’s supposed to be played. Several of our guys had multi-hit games. We executed a lot of things and got some big hits when we needed them.”

Dadeville and BRHS play each other in Alexander City on Saturday at 4 p.m. The Tigers will aim to avenge last Monday’s effort, when the Wildcats swept them at DHS.

“We threw some guys who haven’t gotten a lot of time on the mound against Benjamin Russell,” Nolen said. “It wasn’t the ideal situation for those pitchers because (BRHS) hits the ball really well, but we wanted to give them an opportunity. We made too many mistakes and they made us pay.”

Dadeville plays the first game of the week Monday against Chelsea at 9:30 a.m. and takes the field again at 2 p.m. versus Cleburne County. BRHS opens up with Chilton County at 11:45 a.m. The Wildcats’ game with Sylacauga on Friday was canceled.

-Games are at 9:30 a.m., 11:45 a.m., 2 p.m., 4:15 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. each day at Sportplex (S) or CACC (C) and are listed in order of start time.

-Monday:

-Dadeville vs. Chelsea (S)

-Sylacauga vs. Opelika (C)

-BRHS vs. Chilton Co. (S)

-Gadsden vs. Coosa (C)

-Dadeville vs. Cleburne (S)

-Valley vs. Opelika (C)

-Tallassee vs. Briarwood (S)

-Etowah vs. Smiths Station (C)

-Valley vs. Westbrook Chr. (S)

-Beauregard vs. Cleburne (C)

-Tuesday:

-Tallassee vs. Coosa (S)

-Chilton Co. vs. Smiths (C)

-Westbrook vs. Opelika (S)

-Beauregard vs. Dadeville (C)

-Sylacauga vs. Westbrook (S)

-Cleburne vs. Chelsea (C)

-BRHS vs. Etowah (S)

-Briarwood vs. Gadsden (C)

-Beauregard vs. Chelsea (S)

-Cleburne vs. Sylacauga (C)

-Wednesday:

-BRHS vs. Gadsden (S)

-Etowah vs. Chilton (C)

-Briarwood vs. Etowah (S)

-Tallassee vs. Smiths (C)

-Tallassee vs. Gadsden (S)

-Valley vs. Chelsea (C)

-BRHS vs. Smiths (S)

-Westbrook vs. Dadeville (C)

-Opelika vs. Beauregard (S)

-Briarwood vs. Coosa (C)

-Thursday (all at Sportplex):

-Chilton vs. Coosa

-Valley vs. Sylacauga

-Pool Finals

-Pool Finals

-Championship