Yalobusha Giants
Published 12:00 am Friday, August 21, 2015
Members of the Yalobusha Giants include (front row, l. to r.) Sam Bianco, Oxford; Josh Basil, New Albany; Eli Hancock, Houston; Cole Phillips and Luke Willard, Pine Dale; (back row) Head Coach Russ Pratt, Kemp Alderman, Decatur; Bowen Williams, Batesville; Matt Swan, Amory; Ryan Burt, Columbus; Peyton Puckett, Tupelo; assistant coaches, Kelly Alderman and Jon Burt. Photo submitted
The Yalobusha Giants 13-year-old baseball team won the most competitive invitational baseball tournament in the country last weekend in Orlando.
Playing on the team is Bowen Williams of Batesville.
Participating teams in the age group qualified by winning one of the 32 Super NIT hosted countrywide.
The 13U Yalobusha Giants team won the Chatanooga, Tenn. Super NIT to qualify for Disney.
Russ Pratt is the manager of the Yalobusha Giants. Other coaches for the 13U team are Jon “Tank” Burt, Kelly Alderman and Jason Jenkins. This year’s record for the 13U team was 33-7.
The Giants defeated the Texas Bombers in the Championship game televised on MLB.com. It was just the third loss of the season for the Bombers all season. Many of the teams competing in this age group carried 20 or more players for this tournament, but the Giants were able to win it with just 10 homegrown Mississippi players.
In order to advance to the televised championship game, the Giants defeated teams from South Florida-Miami, Michigan, Central Florida-Tampa, Fresno, California, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and finally Texas.
