ELIZABETHTOWN — Moments that mattered are splashed throughout a miraculous week in Dunn.
Elizabethtown powered its way to a state championship, the 9- and 10-year-old all-stars prevailing among 16 teams in the Dixie Youth Baseball AAA Division 1 tournament. The World Series awaits this weekend, and with it new memories.
Winning six straight in the losers bracket meant the successful equation had many parts. Reflections of hits, defense and camaraderie unique to their age draw out this team’s electric smiles.
“Hitting a double, the first game,” Hunter Wood says of his favorite memory.
The Clarkton School of Discovery fifth-grader drove in a run on the play.
C.J. McCracken nearly hit a home run against West Chatham.
“It hit the fence, and I got a double,” said the Elizabethtown Middle fifth-grader.
Joshua Dawson will also replay offense against West Chatham.
“My first hit was a two-RBI triple that got the team fired up,” said the Elizabethtown Middle sixth-grader. “It was 3-1, and that tied it.”
E’town went on to win handily, 9-3.
Dawson added he believes one of the best things about this team is how they play the game.
“We’re really sportsman-like,” he said. “We have a lot of confidence in each other. We believe if they can do it, we can all do it.”
McCracken cited the team’s sportsmanship as a quality trait as well. Claxton Tatum, an Elizabethtown Middle fifth-grader, said the team whose nucleus has been together about four years battles throughout.
The steely resolve paid off against Stanley, in the first of what would be two games on the final day. In the fourth inning, Elizabethtown clung to a 6-3 lead but there were no outs and the bases full.
On a fly ball to Tatum in center field, he made the catch and threw a strike to the catcher, Dawson, for a double play.
“We never give up,” Tatum said.
If they did, perhaps that inning unravels, or the first game of the losers bracket would have been their termination point. One of 12 teams remaining, eight of which were a loss away from going home, Elizabethtown gutted out a 3-2 win over Montgomery County in that one.
Without it, Emereau sixth-grader Easton Bostic’s moment wouldn’t have happened.
“Beating Whiteville!” he said of the contest that sent Elizabethtown into the championship matchup with Stanley.
Make no mistake, in Bladen County long before they reach the two public high schools, community rivalries are taught to even the youngest.
Fox Sutton, a fourth-grader at Elizabethtown Primary, said these are his “good friends. They’re funny.”
Though serious as needed on the diamond.
“They do their best,” Wood said.
Jaxon Hair, a fifth-grader at Clarkton School of Discovery, said it’s a group that gives him encouragement. He will remember a group “playing as a great team, coming back.”
“They’re friends,” said Brady Marlowe, a fifth-grader at Harrells Christian.
“They’re my best friends,” added Jayce Hatcher.
Hair, Marlowe, Hatcher, Tyler Eason, Collin Cole and Braylon Cromartie won’t soon forget how it all ended. Or the celebration that followed.
Hatcher, a fifth-grader at Emereau, said the ensuing excitement was something he’d never felt before. Eason, a classmate of Hatcher at Emereau, was at shortstop when the game ended.
“I ran over and jumped in there,” Eason said.
Most likely it was somewhere near Braylon Cromartie, an Elizabethtown Middle sixth-grader and the second baseman who fielded the final ground ball and stepped on second base. In new territory, Cromartie flashed a toothy grin and admits he gave no thoughts to then tossing his glove — and the game ball — high in the air.
“We have fun,” he said of the celebration.
It’s emblematic of the day-to-day approach.
Head coach Kyle Bostic said the base umpire, Errol Daniels, was kind enough to snag the ball and later deliver it to practice.
Cole, a sixth-grader at Harrells, was in the outfield.
“I was in left field, I ran in, and started to cry,” he said.
Tears of joy?
“Yes.”
Because as he said, “We’re a family.”
Elizabethtown’s 9- and 10-year-old all-stars are the first in their age group to win the Dixie Youth Baseball state championship and go to the World Series. The team includes (clockwise, from lower right corner) Hunter Wood, C.J. McCracken, Tyler Eason, Fox Sutton, Brady Marlowe, Jaxon Hair, Claxton Tatum, Easton Bostic, Jayce Hatcher, Braylon Cromartie, Collin Cole and Joshua Dawson.