Bracket play set to begin in Dothan Diamond Classic

Early morning rain Thursday made conditions unplayable for safe competition and forced the nearly week-long high school softball tournament to develop Friday’s bracket play at the Westgate Softball Complex off only one round of pool play.

The original concept of the 20-team tournament had Friday’s bracket pairings based off four games over two nights of pool play. Instead, Thursday’s weather forced tournament organizers to use only Tuesday’s pool play action where all teams played two games.

Seven teams won both of their pool games on Tuesday – Dothan and Rehobeth from Pool A, Geneva and Ashford from Pool B, Wicksburg and Brantley in Pool C and G.W. Long in Pool D.

Tiebreakers were used in three of the pools to determine a top seed. In all three cases, it came to defensive runs allowed. Dothan, which had shutouts in both wins, earned the Pool A No. 1 seed. Ashford, which allowed only three runs, took the Pool B No. 1 seed. Wicksburg, which had two shutouts in its wins, captured the Pool C No. 1 seed.

G.W. Long, as the only pool D team to go unbeaten, is the No. 1 seed for Pool D.

No. 2 seeds for bracket play are Rehobeth (Pool A), Geneva (Pool B), Brantley (Pool C) and Houston Academy (Pool D), while Slocomb (Pool A), Providence Christian (Pool B), Headland (Pool C) and Carroll (Pool D) are No. 3 seeds.

The No. 4 seeds are Dale County (Pool A), Enterprise (Pool B), Northside Methodist (Pool C) and Cottonwood (Pool D) and the No. 5 seeds are Ariton (A), Houston County (B), Pike Road (C) and Geneva County (D).

Friday’s action at Westgate will open with four No. 4-No.5 games at 2 p.m. Those match-ups include Enterprise versus Geneva County; Cottonwood against Houston County; Northside Methodist versus Ariton and Dale County against Pike Road.

All four opening-round winners face a top seed in the second round at 6 p.m. The Enterprise-Geneva County winner plays Dothan; the Cottonwood-Houston County winner plays Wicksburg; the Northside Methodist-Ariton winner meets Ashford and the Dale County-Pike Road winner battles G.W. Long.

Four other second-round games featuring No. 2 seeds against No. 3 seeds will be played at 4 p.m. prior to those contests. Those games are Headland against Geneva; Slocomb versus Houston Academy; Carroll against Brantley and Providence Christian versus Rehobeth.

The second-round winners meet at 8 p.m. for quarterfinal match-ups.

The four quarterfinal winners advance to Saturday’s semifinals at 11 a.m. at Westgate with the two semifinal winners meeting in the championship game at 1 p.m. A consolation game of the two semifinal losers is also at 1 p.m.

Besides the tournament competition, the Kasey Cooper Home Run Derby will be held on Saturday at 10 a.m., prior to the semifinals and championship.

Cooper, a former Dothan, Auburn University and Team USA softball player, will present a trophy and bat to the home run derby champion.

There will also be a pitching and hitting clinic for kids 12-under on Friday at 3 p.m., led by Sharon O’Mara of All Zones Fastpitch Academy.

The tournament is patterned after the Downtown Dothan Hoops Classic annual boys basketball tournament, which distributes money back to participating schools from ticket sales and sponsorships following expenses.

The first Diamond Classic two years ago raised a total of $38,688 which was dispersed among the participating schools.

The top four teams each received a check for $4,836. The next four teams received a check for $2,418. The other eight teams received a check for $1,209.