Natchez 10s win district championship

Published 12:26 am Thursday, July 9, 2009

MCCOMB — Before the Mississippi Dixie Youth 10-year-old District 6 Sub-District Tournament began, Natchez coach Gary Farmer said his team was the best hitting 10-year-old team he had ever coached.

On Wednesday night, they finally showed what they are capable of at the plate.

Natchez blasted McComb 21-5 in just four innings to win the District 6 championship and take the top seed in the South State tournament, which begins July 17 in Hattiesburg.

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“Boy they hit the ball tonight,” Farmer said. “They came out in the first inning stroking it. We scored four runs in the first inning and never looked back.”

Natchez scored four runs in the top of the first inning and two more in the second to take a 6-0 lead.

However, McComb scored four runs in the bottom of the second to trim the deficit to 6-4.

But Natchez’s bats remained ablaze, as Dalvion Jackson hit a three-run homer to key a six-run top of the third inning as Natchez pulled away.

Natchez kept pouring it on in the top of the fourth, as they scored nine more runs to invoke the 10-run mercy rule after McComb didn’t score in the bottom of the fourth.

“It was a good time to get the bats going with South State coming up next Friday,” Farmer said. “Hopefully the bats will stay hot.”

Jace Calcote hit a triple for Natchez while Zac Flattman hit two doubles, and Gabe Smith added a double.

Christian Day was the winning pitcher.

Natchez was fortunate to win Game 1 of the three-game series 8-7, and Farmer told his team before Wednesday’s game that he wanted to see some more pop in the bats.

“Before the game I told them that we haven’t been scoring runs like we normally do,” Farmer said. “The bats have been flat. I wanted us to come out and hit like we know how to hit, and we did that. We came out fired up and wanting to play. We pounced on McComb and never looked back.”