HATTIESBURG — The state championship was right there for the taking, but it was Hattiesburg, and not Natchez, that reached out and grabbed it.

Hattiesburg overcame a three-run deficit and defeated Natchez 7-5 Saturday morning in the Dixie Youth 10-year-old State Tournament to put themselves in a position to win the title.

Hattiesburg clinched the state championship with a 13-1 win over Indianola Saturday evening.

Natchez came back Saturday night to beat Philadelphia 16-8, but it wasn’t enough, as they were relegated to a second place finish.

The tournament was a round-robin format, with each of the four teams playing once against each other.

Hattiesburg won the championship with a 3-0 record while Natchez was 2-1. Philadelphia finished third with a 1-2 record while Indianola finished with an 0-3 mark.

“Hattiesburg is a very strong team and they deserved to win,” Natchez coach Gary Farmer said. “We had our opportunities to win, but we just didn’t do it.”

Natchez took a 4-1 lead over Hattiesburg with four runs in the top of the second inning, but the eventual state champs came right back with four runs in the bottom of the third to reclaim the lead.

Natchez tied the score with a run in the top of the fourth, but Hattiesburg scored a run in the bottom of the inning to take the lead once again, and then added its final run in the bottom of the fifth.

Gage Dossett and Brock Farmer had doubles for Natchez while Dalvion Jackson hit a triple.

Farmer and Jacob Jenkins were 2-for-2 in the loss.

Christian Day took the loss on the mound.

Natchez collected only seven hits in the game, the third consecutive time that Hattiesburg pitching has shut down Natchez’s bats.

“They’ve got some very good pitching and a strong defense,” Farmer said. “In order to score runs against them, you’ve got to get hit after hit. You can’t depend on any errors. We just didn’t string enough hits together against Hattiesburg, and that’s a testament to them being the state champion. They shut down a very good hitting team.”

Stringing hits together wasn’t a problem for Natchez in their final game of the state tournament.

Natchez pounded out 19 hits and 16 runs in its rout over Philadelphia.

Natchez scored two runs in the first and eight more in the second inning to take an early 10-0 lead.

Philadelphia scored eight runs in the top of the fourth inning to cut the lead to 10-8, but Natchez came back with four runs in the bottom of the fourth and two more in the fifth to pull away for the 16-8 victory.

Zac Flattman led the hitting barrage with two home runs, while Dossett hit a three-run homer of his own.

Craig Bradley and Gabe Smith had triples while Reed White, Smith and Sam Parker had doubles for Natchez.

Brock Farmer was the winning pitcher for Natchez.

Gary Farmer said he was proud of the way his team came back strong Saturday night after losing that morning.

“We talked with them and said we had come this far and if the best we could do was second in the state, let’s do it,” Farmer said. “They relaxed and had a good time. They really hit the ball well.”

Farmer said perseverance is the thing he will most remember about the Natchez 10-year-olds.

“They think they can win any game against anybody, and never got down on themselves,” Farmer said. “Even when Hattiesburg beat them twice before, they thought they could do it. It was a great bunch of kids and a great bunch of parents. It’s a blessing to be able to coach a team of this caliber and this good of kids and parents.”