Auburn Majors All-Stars ready for World Series

By Tom Peavy

Published: July 25, 2008

It’s a dream team of sorts.

Take some of the area’s best high school baseball players, put them on the field together as an All-Star team and let them compete.

While the same can be done in other cities around Alabama and the southeast, the success of high school baseball in the Auburn-Opelika area directly resulted in what has become the Auburn Dixie Majors (17-19) All-Stars — a team headed to the World Series for the second consecutive year.

Auburn begins play in the World Series today in Dyersburg, Tenn., against the Arkansas representative at Noon.

The team finished second last year and have their sights set on the title this time around.

“Last year when we got there we were the youngest team there,” head coach Al Starr said. “A lot of people didn’t know who we were, but this year I imagine it’ll be the other way around and we’ll have a big ‘X’ on our back.”

During the high school season, Opelika was ranked No. 1 in Class 6A much of the year and reached the state championship series with a national ranking.

Auburn High was also highly ranked all season in state.

Combine 12 of those players with one from a talented Beauregard team, two proven stars from Lee-Scott and a current college player and you have an All-Star team of amazing talent.

Five of the All-Stars were first-team All-Area in 2008. Three others were All-Area honorable mention.

“We’ve got a great group of kids and it’s great to know if someone isn’t feeling good or someone is hurt we’ve got others we can put out there and we won’t miss a beat,” Starr said. “All of them have great attitudes and they play as a team.

“It’s kind of funny that they play against each other all year and now they get to come together and play together.”

Auburn High players dominate the roster with 10 current or former players.

Whitt Dorsey, Creede Simpson, Michael King, Taylor Register, Will Ruffin, Blake Long, harry Haring, Reid Carter and Scott Norrell all played for the Tigers last year. Drew Hull played at AHS two years ago and saw playing time at Troy University last season as a true freshman.

Drake Sasser, John Gunnels and Chance Lawrence are the Opelika players on the All-Star team while Caleb Cofield represents Beauregard.

Finally, Jace Harper and J.B. Edgar are on the team after playing at Lee-Scott.

While it seems to be a mixed bag of players from the area, the truth is these guys have played together many times before.

In fact, Gunnels, Sasser, Edgar and Harper were members of the 2003 Dixie 13s team from Opelika that captured the World Series title.

And nine of the current All-Stars were on the team last season that finished second in the Dixie Majors World Series.

“I played with a lot of these guys all through high school and played against some,” Hull, who was a member last year, said. “Just to come together like this, it means a lot.

“Everyone likes everyone and we all get along because we’ve grown up together.”

Other teams competing in the World Series include Moss Bluff (Louisiana), Laurel-Jones (Mississippi),  Parkview (Georgia), Bessemer City (North Carolina), Jacksonville (Florida), Smyth County (Virginia), Marshall (Texas), North Charleston (South Carolina), Jess Neely (Nashville, Tenn.), Nashville (Arkansas) and host Dyersburg (Tennessee).

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