Alex Greynolds, a former fourth-grader at Ringgold Elementary School, joined with his grandmother Susan Fox and collected more than 2,000 box tops for the annual box top school contest. At the end of the school year, his name was drawn from a group of other top collectors, giving him the grand prize of getting to throw out the first pitch at the June 23 Chattanooga Lookouts game.

Greynolds is the son of Wendy and George Greynolds of Ringgold. His mother said he was a huge baseball fan and wants to follow in his father’s footsteps and be a pitcher. So when he heard the grand prize would be to throw out a first pitch, he got very determined.

“I kept reminding him that, even though he was the winner in his grade each nine weeks, it was still a drawing,” she said. “In the end it comes down to luck, but he worked really hard to win every nine weeks. He made sure his name went into the pot each time, so it was nice that he won. I was so happy for him.”

The Greynolds family received four tickets to the June 23 Lookouts game against the Pensacola Blue Wahoos. She said he got to throw out the first pitch, then he walked around to both dugouts and got lots of autographs from both teams.

According to his mother, Alex is actually more of a major league baseball fan and got to go to his first major game league just last month.

“We have a family member who has season tickets to the Braves, so we took him to see them play against the Washington Nationals,” she said. “He caught several foul balls and got some autographs.”

Like his father, who was a pitcher in high school in Tucker, Ga., Greynolds has a really good arm, his mother said.

“He’s only nine, but he’s throwing at speeds in the sixties, which is phenomenally fast for his age,” she said. “His father wasn’t crazy about him pitching so young and wearing out his arm, but he had to admit he may have some talent, so we’re hiring him a coach this summer to get ready for fall ball. He definitely has exceptional speed, but we’re working on accuracy.”