NATCHEZ — Back-to-back home runs by Daniel Huffines and Christopher Perry and a good outing by Andrew Moroney on the mound helped the Natchez 12-year-old All-Stars defeat the Lincoln County Nationals 9-2 Saturday night at Carroll-Jones Field.

Natchez advanced in the winner’s bracket with the win at the District 6 North Sub-District Tournament and will take on Copiah Monday at 8 p.m. The Lincoln County Nationals dropped to the loser’s bracket and will take on the loser of the Copiah-Natchez game at 6 p.m Tuesday. Both games will take place at Carroll-Jones Field.

“We dedicated this game to our head coach, Gus Perry, who had food poisoning this morning,” Natchez assistant coach Danny Huffines said. “He was up in the press box watching the game. I wish he was down here in the dugout with us. He’s getting better.”

Natchez put the game out of reach with five runs in the top of the sixth inning on a two-run single by Perry, an RBI groundout by Sky Logan, and a two-run double by Tanner Martin.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game,” Huffines said. “Our pitching hung tough. I thought Andrew had an outstanding performance.”

Moroney had a no-hitter through three and two-thirds innings despite two hit batsmen and allowing two batters to get on with a fielder’s choice.

Yet Moroney kept the Lincoln County Nationals off the scoreboard despite allowing two-out singles to Luke Peavy, Genoa Sartin and Logan Smith in the bottom of the fourth inning. He did so by getting Graham Watson to ground right back to him for the third out.

“Just didn’t get anything started,” Lincoln County Nationals head coach Kevin Smith said. “We hit it hard, but we hit it right at someone. Natchez has a good-coached team. It was a good ball game.”

Natchez got things going as Daniel Huffines and Perry hit one-out solo home runs to give the visitors an early 2-0 lead. After being held scoreless and hitless against starting pitcher Sartin in the second and third innings, Natchez scored what at the time proved to be two key runs in the top of the fourth inning.

“It’s nice to start the game at the top of the order with two home runs,” Huffines said.

Perry hit a leadoff single and went to third on a single by Logan, who went to second on the throw, giving Natchez runners in scoring position with no outs. After Sartin struck out Kyle Bradley and with Tyler Duncan batting, catcher Logan Smith threw the ball away, allowing Perry to score. After Duncan struck out, Taylor Buckles walked and Martin came through with a single to score Logan.

“They had a great pitcher,” Huffines said about Sartin. “He’s got a great curveball. He had two different curveballs and they were both nasty. It took a little while to get to it.”

Sartin gave up nine runs on nine hits, four walks and one hit batsman and he struck out seven in five and one-third innings before being relieved by Houston Case.

The Lincoln County Nationals made it a 4-2 game in the bottom of the fifth as Case and Jordan McCaffrey hit back-to-back one-out doubles, Tyler Roberts singled and Lane Smith scored McCaffrey on a fielder’s choice.

Moroney, the winning pitcher, went four and one-third innings, allowing two runs on six hits while striking out four to go with two hit batsmen. Daniel Huffines relieved Moroney and allowed no hits in one and two-thirds innings.

“It was a good game,” Smith said. “I feel like we’ll meet them again in the finals.”

Perry went 3-for-3 with three runs batted in, Huffines was 2-for-3 with an RBI and Buckles was 1-for-2 with two RBIs to lead Natchez. Case and McCaffrey each went 1-for-2 with an RBI for the Lincoln County Nationals.

Wesson 11, Franklin County 0

NATCHEZ — The Wesson All-Stars stayed alive in tournament action with a shutout win over Franklin County in five innings Saturday afternoon at Carroll-Jones Field.

Winning pitcher Quentin Munn allowed just one hit over five innings while Patrick Lumley hit two home runs and Alex Smith was 2-for-3 with a double and a triple for Wesson.

“We just don’t have a whole lot to choose from. I’ve coached most of them since T-ball.” Franklin County head coach Sammy Rushing said. “That boy Munn pitched a good game. Their shortstop, Ricky Wilson, made some outstanding catches. My boy Hunter pitched a good game. I was proud of them. Natchez was tough. Wesson was tough.”

Wesson scored at least one run in all but one inning and finished with a total of 10 hits. Eric Sharp was 2-for-3 with a double and teammates Jacob Tarver and Lumley were also 2-for-3.

Wesson will take on the Lincoln County Americans in an elimination game Monday at 6 p.m. at Carroll-Jones Field.