Wednesday night marked the first time a Georgia team has won a Dixie Boys World Series in Newton County in the five times the area has hosted the event, dating back to 1993.

However, it wasn't by the team that much of the home crowd was rooting for. As the host team, the Newton County All-Stars, fell just shy of winning the title to the team representing Georgia, 5-2.

"We did play them close," said Newton coach Denny Hewell. "To lose the first game and come back and make it all the way to the championship speaks for itself to me. These guys played their hearts out."

Georgia led from the first inning, as Newton County's pitcher Austin Taylor hit leadoff hitter Marcus Everhart with a pitch. Georgia's centerfielder then moved to second on a sacrifice and advanced to third on a wild pitch.

Everhart came in to score on Cason Greathouse's groundout to shortstop putting the host team in a 1-0 hole.

In three of the four innings Georgia scored, it got the first batter on base.

It started the second inning with a leadoff base runner as well as Jerad Munoz walked. He was later thrown out on his way to third on a bunt by Drew Reeves, but by that time Robbie Snipes had been walked to keep runners on base for Georgia.

Following Reeves' bunt, which came to a halt on the chalk of the first base foul line, allowing Snipes to move to second, Dawson Weaver hit a shot into right field to score Snipes.

Reeves scored on a sacrifice fly to center field by Everhart to make it 3-0. Dawson Weaver ended the inning after he left to early on tag from second base.

After putting up another run in the fifth inning, and facing a Newton threat, which made it a two-run game, Georgia led off the seventh inning with a single by Jalen Latta. Latta was driven home by the tournament's leading run producer, Bryce Delevie.

Delevie, who hit .706 and had four home runs and 17 RBI's in the tournament, was held in check much of Wednesday evening.
His first hit didn't come until the seventh inning, but it Georgia was able to capitalize on Newton's few pitching mistakes.
"He had a base hit but I think we proved he wasn't Superman," Hewell said.

The host team allowed the fourth fewest walks in the tournament, even though they made it further than 10 other teams, with 12 and allowed three and hit three batters on Wednesday night.

Despite the miscues, Newton gave up 10 hits, and struck out six batters in a combined effort by Nick Womack and Taylor.

Offensively, Newton County couldn't get into scoring position throughout most of the game, getting just four batters into scoring position during the first five innings.

Newton County got its first run of the championship game in the bottom of the third inning after Phillip Rowe led off with a hit. Rowe then stole second, before coming home on a hit to center field by Jared Jones.

After a strikeout by Blake Shope, Nick Womack's at bat was interrupted by a lightning postponement at 7:47 p.m. One hour and 21 minutes later the game resumed, but Newton couldn't capitalize on its pre-storm momentum.

"It just killed the momentum we had going," Hewell said.

Newton County would add a run in the sixth inning when Womack led off by hitting into an error. After two outs, Georgia committed another to allow Womack to score. Conner Hewell hit a sharp grounder to the third baseman, which was then bobbled by the first baseman allowing Womack to make the score 4-2 in favor of Georgia.

In the final frame, Newton County couldn't produce a base runner and the 2012 Dixie Boys World Series came to its conclusion.
It's the last time any of the Newton County All Stars will be able to play in Dixie Boys baseball but they went out representing their community and league well.

"All these kids, none of them have the opportunity to come back and play again," Hewell said. "But they'll be in high school, and I look forward to seeing them play there."