Diamond Elite baseball team wins championship

The Diamond Elite 11U-Black travel baseball team of East Mississippi defeated Louisiana Crushers 11U, 9-1, in the 11U Open USSSA Global World Series championship game in Destin, Florida, last week.

Diamond Elite outscored their tournament opponents 75-25 over the course of five days.

Team members from Neshoba County are Hutt Rushing and Jacob Isaac.

Diamond Elite went in the first day with a loss to the Crushers when they gave up eight runs in one inning. After that loss Diamond Elite put it in overdrive and went undefeated over the next four days. Besides the Louisiana team, Diamond Elite battled against teams from Indiana, Georgia and South Carolina.

“All 11 of my players shined in one way or another, whether on the mound, fielding or hitting,” said coach Lee Rich. “After the mistakes and errors of the first game, the players realized the only team that could beat us down here, was us. They didn’t let up after that.”

The core of young men on this team have been together for four years. What started out with more than half the boys coming from local tri-county recreational ball teams, Stonewall, Enterprise, Clarkdale, Quitman, now comprises also with players from Lauderdale, Neshoba and Lowndes counties.

Diamond Elite is coached by head coach Lee Rich and assistants Lee Blackburn and TJ Rushing.

“We volunteer our time two to three days a week with this group of young men and play multiple tournaments throughout the fall and spring/summer season,” Rich said. “We travel throughout the southern region to play competitive baseball.”

Half the team tried out for their respective junior high teams and all made it.