The Marshall County 13-15 year old All-Stars travelled to H.V. Griffin Park in Shelbyville last weekend to compete in a Tennessee Youth Baseball Association (TYBA) state tournament qualifier as a precursor to this week’s Babe Ruth State Tournament at Lawrenceburg.

Marshall County dominated the competition with a 4-0 record at Shelbyville, outscoring its opponents 35-3.

“I was real tickled with the way they swung the bat, and when you don’t give up but three runs it’s obvious your pitching was really good,” Marshall County manager Mike Mills said. “Our starting pitching the first two games absolutely blanked them, and that’s what we are looking for in our state.”

Mills’ squad opened with an 8-2 win over host Shelbyville before posting back-to-back shutouts over Cascade (11-0) and the Murfreesboro Fusion (10-0).

Grayson Miller picked up the win on the mound in game one, while Caleb McElhaney was the winner versus Cascade and Carson Cheek was victorious on the hill for Marshall County in game three.

Marshall County squared off with Cascade in the title game and game away with a 6-1 win as Daniel Sellars picked up the win on the hill and McElhaney earned the save.

“Everybody on this team can pitch, they can all throw,” said the Marshall County Wall of Fame coach. “We never were pushed into pitching, and we had people who could step in if we needed them, so it worked out real good.”

The title qualified Marshall County to play in the TYBA state tournament next weekend at Shelbyville.

The All-Stars are practicing all week in preparation for Lawrenceburg as they look to defend back-to-back Babe Ruth state titles.

“We learned quite a bit, we moved people around a lot and played them in a lot of different places, trying to find two for each spot,” Mills said. “Everybody pretty much produced where they went and they made a couple of outstanding plays that could have moved runners, so it was a solid defensive effort.”

It wouldn’t be a Babe Ruth State Tournament if the Marshall County All-Stars didn’t face longtime archrival Giles County and the tussle is taking place early at Lawrenceburg as the two squads square off in an Eastern Division opening round game on Friday at Bobby Brewer Park with the first pitch scheduled for 5:30 p.m.

“It’s all out, they don’t want to lose us and we definitely don’t want to lose to them and you know, it’s bragging rights, we see a lot of those boys and they see us,” Mills said. “We played them in the state one year at Johnson City in a gut wrenching game, I mean it was tight all the way through.”

“After the game I had everybody from Giles County and Marshall County both in my room, so they battle like the devil on the field, but they get along pretty good when they come off.”

Host Lawrenceburg takes on Lebanon in the first game on Friday and Bellevue received a first-round bye.

Bracket play continues on Saturday and the state title game is on Sunday at 3:30 p.m.

Marshall County does not need to win the state tournament to qualify for the upcoming Babe Ruth Southeast Region Tournament at Lewisburg, but Mills is certain the squad wants the state title three-peat in hand when the welcome the SE Region participants on July 23 for the Ice Breaker at Flat Rock Farm.

“We don’t have to win it (state), we are automatically in the Southeast by hosting it, but we would kind of like to make it three in a row,” Mills said. “These kids definitely want that.”

The 2018 Babe Ruth World Series and defending SE Region champion Tallahassee Leon All-Stars have already qualified along with the Mckenzie Rebels from the Tennessee Western Divison.

“It’s gonna bring a lot of people into town, staying at hotels and going to the eating joints, it’s gonna be a big show,” Mills said. “We have never had a Marshall County team win a southeast region, we have finished second a couple of times, third a couple of times, we have just been a little bit from taking one, in fact we were down one year to one ground ball under a glove from winning it.”

“So we are excited about it, I believe this is the deepest pitching team we have had and we have had some pretty good teams.”