Tallassee and Elmore County spilt their two games this season. Photo by Kyle Thornton

Area tourney this week

By Michael Butler

The Class 5A/Area 5 softball tournament will be in Tallassee at Southside Park this week. Tallassee is the host team for the third straight year under head coach Pat Love.

"We're playing good ball right now," said Love. "It's big for us to host. We're excited. It's always great to play on your own field in front of the home crowd."

Elmore County tied the Tigers for first place during the regular season, but Tallassee won the tiebreaking coin toss.

Tallassee was ranked No. 8 in the latest Alabama Sports Writers Association Class 5A poll. Elmore County was No. 6. Tallassee enters this week's tournament with a 23-17 record. The Panthers are 28-16-3. Other area foes include Beauregard (19-22-1) and Valley (12-22).

"Our area tournament going to be hard," Love added. "I think we have one of the toughest areas around. We are going to have to have to play our best ball to make it out."

Tallassee opens the tourney on Wednesday, May 3 at 12 p.m. vs. Valley. The Tigers swept the Rams this season with two 16-0 wins.

The tournament will be double elimination. The top two teams will advance to the playoffs.

When asked if this team can make a run to the state Love had a definitive answer. "No doubt. As long as we can keep the errors down, we can play pretty good ball. When we make teams earn it, we're good. We're peaking right now. The pitchers are doing real well. Brooke Royster and Madeline Weldon have been phenomenal. We've got some good hitters. We're playing good defense."

Schedule/Results

Class 5A/Area 5 Tournament Bracket

May 3:
Game 1 (12 p.m.) - No. 4 Valley vs. No. 1 Tallassee
Game 2 (2 p.m.) - No. 3 Beauregard vs. No. 2 Elmore County
Game 3 (4 p.m.) - Game 1 Winner vs. Game 2 Winner
Game 4 (6 p.m.) - Game 1 Loser vs. Game 2 Loser

May 4:
Game 5 (2 p.m.) - Game 3 Loser vs. Game 4 Winner
Game 6 (4 p.m.) - Game 3 Winner vs. Game 5 Winner
*Game 7 (6 p.m.) - Game 6 Winner vs. Game 6 Loser (*if necessary)