BROOKHAVEN &045; Here we go again.

The Natchez Americans and the Natchez Nationals opened the sub-district tournament Thursday with wins to set up another matchup today in the winner’s bracket. The two will square off at 6 p.m. in Brookhaven after the Nationals needed a third game to take the best-of-three city series Wednesday.

The Nationals beat Brookhaven Nationals 15-14, and the Americans beat Copiah 16-10.

One thing’s for sure about tonight &045; there’s going to be some offense.

&uot;We’ll play them again,&uot; Americans head coach Ben Hewitt said. &uot;Maybe it’ll be a better game. We both know each other. We have our stat books on both teams, and we’ll use that a lot. I think it’s going to be a pretty good game. Every time you play them, you get to know them. They know us, and we know them.&uot;

Neither team showed signs of slowing down at the plate as the two games combined for 55 runs. The Nationals, however, came with the drama by winning in their last at-bat after game officials were ready to call it for time limit.

The score was knotted at 14 with the Nationals’ Kenneth Jordan on third and Patrick Washington at the plate. Washington lined one back to the mound, and Copiah went to first instead of home to allow Jordan to score the winning run and end the game.

&uot;They had come to me and said ‘Coach, time has expired. We’re not going to play another inning. This is it,’&uot; Nationals head coach Billy Ray Farmer said. &uot;I told Kenneth if there’s a ground ball to the pitcher, hold tight. A ground ball to first, gun it. That’s exactly what happened. He hit a high chop, they jumped, got it and fired it to first. Kenneth went home.&uot;

The Nationals had to come back to take the win after Brookhaven took a 10-1 lead early in the game. But the bats got going as Quinn Logan and Cameron Farmer came with big hits, and James Coley made a catch in left and doubled up a runner at second to switch the momentum to the Nationals’ side.

&uot;It was like Game 1 (Thursday),&uot; Billy Ray Farmer said. &uot;We started very slow, very sloppy and couldn’t catch a break. Once our bats got going, there we went again.&uot;

The Americans, meanwhile, had the big lead early before Copiah got hot in the later innings to make things interesting. The Americans led 10-0 in the fourth and took a 16-6 lead into the final inning before Copiah tacked on four runs.

R.J. Givens and Jardarious Anderson came up with home runs for the Americans.

&uot;Our bats were on tonight,&uot; Hewitt said. &uot;That last inning, again, they started slacking on me, but actually they played real well. We had the big bats tonight. They were a little intimated by the field. It was a little bit smaller.

&uot;We did the same thing we’ve been doing. That’s why I’m worried about playing Billy Ray. We’re strong in the first half, and they’re strong in the second half.&uot;