MONROE, La. — The Concordia Parish 11-year-old Dixie Youth All-Star team came up short in the district championship game Friday night, but it still accomplished its goal of making it to the state tournament.

The top two teams in the district tournament advance to the state tournament, which begins Friday, in Gonzales, La.

So even though Concordia lost to Monroe 7-5 in Friday’s district championship game, they still advanced to the next level.

“I told the kids that our goal was to get to the next level,” Concordia coach Whest Shirley said. “And we did that by beating Caldwell (in the semifinals Thursday night). We wanted to go in as the No. 1 seed, but our goal was to get to Gonzales where the state tournament is.”

Concordia had to defeat Monroe twice on Friday to win the district title, and came very close to forcing a second game.

Monroe took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, but Concordia scored a run in the second on a Chandler Grayson Single to cut the lead to 3-1.

Concordia then took a 5-3 lead with four runs in the top of the fourth inning.

Cade Passman drove in two of the runs with a single and the other two runs scored on a Monroe error.

Monroe tied the game up in the bottom of the fourth before a defensive lapse by Concordia allowed the winning runs to score in the fifth.

With two outs and the bases loaded, the Monroe batter popped a ball up in the infield, but the ball was misplayed and dropped to the ground, allowing two runs to score.

Concordia couldn’t score in the top of the sixth inning, and wound up losing by those two unearned runs.

“Errors will always come back to haunt you,” Shirley said. “You can’t make errors when you’re playing a team of Monroe’s caliber and expect to win.”

Concordia will play its first game of the state tournament at 5 p.m. on Friday, July 17 against Morgan City.

The team will then play two games on Saturday, July 18. The first one is at 9 a.m. against Sabine and the second is at 2:30 p.m. against Gonzales.

There are two four-team pools in the state tournament, and the winner of each pool will play each other on Sunday, July 19 for the state championship.

“We’re looking forward to the state tournament,” Shirley said. “We accomplished one of our goals by making it there, but we want to be playing on Sunday (July 19) for the state championship. That’s our new goal.”