HAZARD — Middlesboro’s 11- and 12-year-old baseball All-Stars were eliminated from the District 4 tournament Wednesday night with a 12-2 loss to Tri-City.

Tri-City took a 2-0 lead in the first inning without getting a hit. Nick Jarvis reached on an error and Brandon Bellofatto was hit by a pitch and they both advanced around to score on a series of wild pitches and passed balls.

Two more hit batters in the second inning opened the door for a another Tri-City run as Hunter Holland scored on Dylan Cornett’s sacrifice fly to make it 3-0.

Middlesboro rallied in the third as Logan Capps singled up the middle and Holden North slapped a base hit to right field. Capps advanced to third on North’s hit and North then stole second.

Daniel Webb sent a high fly ball to left-center field that was dropped for an error and Capps scored easily after tagging up on the play. North scored on a passed ball as Webb advanced to third with one out.

Caleb Partin looked to have a game-tying RBI when his fly ball to center was deep enough to bring Webb home, but on appeal the umpire ruled Webb left early from third base and the inning was over.

Middlesboro never really got back on track after that. Tri-City put up two runs in the third as Bellofatto singled and advanced to third on an error in the outfield as one run scored and then he came home on a passed ball to make it 5-2.

Three walks, three errors and a few more wild pitches in the fourth allowed Tri-City to score seven runs on three hits to end the game early at 12-2. Brendan Rutherford had a two-run single and Holland and RBI single in the inning. Holland stole second and scored the game-ending run as Sean Johnson reached on an error.

Tri-City advances to face Pulaski at today at 8 p.m. as the tournament continues.

— — —

Middlesboro 002 0 — 2 2 5

Tri-City 212 7 — 12 5 1

Webb, North (4) and Capps; Rutherford, Jarvis (3) and Lewis. W—Rutherford. L—Webb.