Just Like Old Times

By Michael Butler

This week’s Class 4A quarterfinal playoff series between Tallassee and Bibb County has some history.

The two programs have met once in the post-season. The Choctaws swept the Tigers in the Class 5A second round in 2007, but there is another connection with the two teams today that goes back to when the players who will meet Thursday were just getting started in baseball.

Post-game ceremonies with South Bibb and Tallassee at the 2016 Dixie Youth State Tournament in Wetumpka

Many current players on the THS and Bibb rosters played against each other in Dixie Youth Baseball. Three straight years, Tallassee and South Bibb all-star teams played in state tournaments. Three straight times, the team from Bibb County came out on top.

The 2016 7/8 South Bibb team knocked Tallassee out of the state tournament in Wetumpka and represented Alabama in the World Series in Laurel, Miss., losing 7-6 to South Carolina in the championship game. That team handed Tallassee its two losses, 14-13 and 4-3 in the state semifinal.

2015 7/8 all-stars from Tallassee (left to right): Brody Wisener, Avery Brantley, Camden Mask, Bryson Rigsby, Carter Sayers, Walker Oliver, Rowen Thornton, Kaden Peters, Slade Clayton, Bry Hathcock, Thomas Lemmond, Truex Mason.

Tommy Wisener coached all three Tallassee all-star squads.

“I think it’s great the rivalries these kids made growing up playing Dixie Youth,” Wisener said. “We played Bibb three years in a row. If you look at the rosters, a lot of the names are still the same. It says a lot for the kids and programs that have stuck it out and are still playing. I expect this to be a really good series with lots of purple and gold.”

2016 7/8 purple and gold stars (bottom row, left to right): Nathan Mason, Brody Wisener, Mason Henderson, Reed Wood, Brue Milner, Konner Taunton. (Top row, from left): Walker Wells, Slade Clayton, Jack Butler, Avery Brantley, Chase Chumley, Jamarkius Smith.

Wisener was in Centreville on Saturday for the Choctaws’ second-round win over Opp. He coached another Tallassee all-star team in Babe Ruth that fell to Opp in the 15-year-old state championship game in Tallassee. Wisener led those same kids as 13-year-olds to the World Series in Jamestown, NY. His son Brody has played on all those teams and is a senior on this year’s THS squad.

“We had some really good games against them,” Brody said of the previous meetings with Bibb County in the youth leagues. Tallassee’s sweep of W.S. Neal earlier in the week allowed him to take the trip north with his father to scout the Tigers’ next opponent. “Bibb County reminds me a lot of us. They are a really good baseball team. It should be a great matchup.”

Bibb County (25-9) travels to Tallassee (22-10) for the best-of-three beginning on Thursday at 4:30 with a doubleheader. If the series goes to a game three, it will start at 5:00 on Friday. WTLS – Score 94.7/Hit 106.9 will broadcast all the action with an airtime of 30 minutes prior to the first pitch of each game.