By Stephen Dawkins

The dream is still alive for Jemison’s 12-year-old all-star baseball team.
The team used a hot offense to go 3-1 in pool play during the Dizzy Dean World Series, good enough to earn one of four berths in the championship bracket.
“The one thing we’ve done this tournament is hit the ball,” coach Tommy Lenoir said. “Except the first game. I think the kids were just in awe of this facility over here.”
Snowden Grove Park in Southaven, Miss., hosted 117 teams in four age groups over the weekend.
Jemison wasn’t the only local team in attendance. Thorsby’s 14-year-old team finished as runner-up in the state tournament but had its World Series appearance ended with a 12-2 loss on Monday to the Limestone Raiders, the same that defeated the Rebels in the state championship game.
“I believe we were tired; I just believe we’ve played too much baseball this summer,” coach Kyle McRae said. “I told them not to remember this (loss), I told them to remember what it took to get here.
“I was proud of what we got to do and how we got there.”
In order to keep its World Series hopes alive, Jemison will have to go through the championship bracket’s No. 1 seed, Northwest Park (St. Petersburg, Fla.). Northwest Park is the South Florida state champions and the only team to make it through pool play at the World Series unbeaten.
If Jemison wins, they would play at 1 p.m. Wednesday for the World Series title against the winner of the Blount County-Rome (Ga.) game.
All championship bracket games will be shown on Charter Cable over the weekend. Times and channels will be announced later.
Jemison lost to Rome, 5-0, in its first World Series game. Jemison then defeated West Point of Mississippi (14-4), Bill Bond of Florida (9-4) and tournament host Southaven (25-0).
After only recording six hits in the loss to Rome, Jemison pounded out 17, 17 and 22 hits, respectively, in its next three games.
Banks Woodley leads the team with a .778 batting average, Conner Nason is batting .667, and both Logan Ray and Trea Sanders are batting .615. Will Lenoir, Matthew Ramsey, Phillip Lenoir and Zack Drinkard are all also batting at least .500.
Tommy Lenoir said the most enjoyable part of the trip has been the players being able to spend time with each other.
“We’ve tried to make it a laid back atmosphere,” Lenoir said. “It’s just been a great experience for them.”
Thorsby topped Mantachie (Miss.), 10-0, fell to Lufkin (Texas), 11-1 and defeated Southaven, 19-9, before being eliminated by Limestone, 12-2.