The Sandy Plains Cougars are your 7-year-old Dizzy Dean World Series champions. 

The All-Star team representing the Sandy Plains Baseball Association downed Woodstock's Hobgood Heat 13-10 Thursday in the championship game in Calhoun. 

The World Series tournament featured 51 teams from Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana.

The Cougars, who were the Georgia state champions, had to beat the Alabama champions, district winners and state runner-up on the way to claim the title.

“This team has had an amazing resiliency all season long. Every kid has contributed to the wins,” says Cougars head coach Steve Bocca. “They’re a special group of guys.”

The tournament MVP is Evan Friedman.

The other 2011 All-Star Cougars are Barrett Bocca, Christian Burnette, Danny Curran, Cooper Dickson, Jared Jones, Michael Olkiewicz, JT Pagter, Braden Pringle, Reece Robertson and William Skinner.

Along with Bocca, the coaches are Rory Friedman, George Jones and Jason Skinner.

Thunder dominates Georgia Games

Four boys teams from East Cobb Thunder won lacrosse championships at the Georgia Games that took place last weekend in Cumming. 

The U11, U13, U15 and high school-level teams earned gold medals. In just its fourth year, East Cobb Thunder has grown to include seven age-group and skill level teams, including select and elite programs for players aspiring to play collegiately. 

U17 players Cooper Brandt, Tyler Ryan, Marc Siegelman, Gerard Smith, David Wittes and Nick Zessack won their third Georgia Games gold medals, having played on Thunder teams that won in 2008, 2009 and 2011.

Georgia Little League tourney starts Saturday

The East Marietta Giants, fresh off their District 2 title earlier this month, begin play in the Georgia Little League state tournament on Saturday in Cartersville. 

The opener for the Giants is at 3 p.m. Saturday against Walton National Little League. Here's the rest of the schedule for the tournament, which concludes next Friday. 

The Cartersville Little League complex is at 51 Clearwater Street, north of downtown Cartersville.