Trio give Auburn glimpse of future

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Trio give Auburn glimpse of future

Pinson's Mummey and Gilmer, Grissom's Morris lead North as All-Stars split doubleheader

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

RON INGRAM

News staff writer

HUNTSVILLE - Pinson Valley's Trent Mummey and Wes Gilmer are both heading to Auburn University in the fall of 2007. So is Grissom's Hunter Morris.

Monday night, the trio gave Tigers fans a glimpse into the future in the fifth inning as they combined to turn a three-run lead into six as the North rolled to a 10-5 win in the second game of the AHSAA's 10th annual All-Star Week North-South prep baseball doubleheader. The South won game one 6-3.

Center fielder Mummey, the Indians' leadoff hitter during the 2006 season, and Gilmer each committed to Auburn earlier this summer. Morris committed after the 2006 season last spring. Mummey drew a walk in the fifth and Gilmer drilled a towering double here at Joe Davis Stadium that bounded over the wall on one bounce. Morris followed with a two-run double. He later stole third and scored.

"Trent said when he was standing on third and Wes was on second and Hunter was at the plate that it was what he was looking forward to," said Pinson coach Shelton Stalls, a coach on the North squad. "That little series (in the fifth) broke the second game open."

Junior Gray of Gadsden hurled four shutout innings to get the win. He struck out three and walked just one while yielding four hits. Jeffrey Vincent of Briarwood pitched two innings and Gilmer hurled the seventh. He also caught and played in the infield.

"Auburn is looking at me to be a catcher," said Gilmer, the great nephew of former Tide All-America football player Harry Gilmer. "I haven't played the position in a long time, but I played it some at team camp (at Auburn where he went 5-for-5 in one game). I like the position. I think it will be my future."

After the South cut the lead to 6-3 in the bottom of the sixth, Allen King of Mountain Brook drove in a run in the seventh to spark the North's four-run outburst that put the game out of reach. Again, Mummey, Gilmer and Morris were keys. Mummey followed King with a single, Gilmer drew a bases-loaded walk and Morris drove in his third run with an RBI groundout.

South 6, North 3: Errors led to two big innings for the South in the come-from-behind win. D.J. Jones of Gulf Shores, the son of Dolphins coach David Jones, formerly of Fairfield, tripled in two runs in the sixth off Mountain Brook hurler Jeff Friedman to break a 3-3 tie and scored the final run when the ball got away at third base. Jones, the state's career triples leader, also had a single and triple in the second game.

Friedman, who was saddled with the loss, went the final three innings, allowing four hits and striking out two. Morris started and struck out seven over the first four innings and allowed just one hit. However, a lead-off walk to Theodore's Kentrail Davis in the fourth inning was followed two stolen bases by the speedy outfielder and then the defense fell apart as the South scored three runs on three errors, a wild pitch and passed ball.

Birmingham News