FAIRHOPE, Alabama — The Fairhope American League Ozone All-Stars won the best-of-three playoff series over the Fairhope National All-Stars last Friday 2-1 and 6-5 at Volanta Park.

The series win gives a bye to the AL team which will now advance directly to the Ozone state tournament hosted by Fairhope Youth Baseball this year. The NL players will now begin the playoff tournament path starting June 15 with the goal of making it to the state tournament next month.

“The keys were playing great defense all night, making big plays when they did get people on base and big hits,” AL coach Brent Dowsey said. “Big, timely hits and great base running came together when we had people on. That was the main thing and no errors. I think the kids had confidence and it showed right from taking infield and they kept it up. They worked hard all week getting ready and I think it showed tonight.”

The AL team will look for travel-ball teams to play as well as enter some tournaments to help prepare for the state tournament next month. The NL will start at the sub-district level from which the winner and runner up will advance to the District 7 level. District winners advance directly to state. The district runners-up will face a sub-state playoff for a state berth.

“I knew it would be errors that would determine this,” NL coach David White said. “I feel like these two teams are pretty much even and the score, the scores, you know one run was the difference both times. So if we just handle the ball a little better and it’s anybody’s game.”

Dixie Youth Baseball District 7 director Barb Stassen said it was exciting to have a state tournament in the local district again.

“We have not hosted any state tournaments since Fairhope did it about 10 years ago,” she said. “The teams all hope to repeat the success of the nine-10-year-olds from Daphne National who (2011 Alabama AAA state champions) made it to the quarter finals in last years World Series. I am so excited.”

Sub-district tournaments begin June 15. Fairhope NL will travel to Saraland for its subdistrict tournament which includes Bay Minette and Municipal AL. Daphne NL is hosting Foley, Orange Beach and Municipal NL. And Central Baldwin will host Gulf Shores, Daphne AL and Spanish Fort AL.

The District 7 tournament begins June 22 in Spanish Fort. The state Ozone tournament at Volanta begins July 13.