PONCHATOULA, La. — The Ferriday Gators continued their march through the Dixie Debs State Tournament with a 14-0 win over Madisonville in five innings in a winners’ bracket game Sunday morning.

Paige Bryan, Marty Lewis and Taylor Rodgers combined to pitch a two-hit shutout. Bryan was the winning pitcher after going the first two innings. Lewis pitched the third and fourth innings and Rodgers pitched the sixth innings.

The Gators scored six runs in the bottom of the first inning, followed by two runs in the bottom of the second, four in the bottom of the third and two in the bottom of the fourth. Rodgers helped her cause by going 2-for-2 with three runs batted in while Bailey Book went 2-for-2 with a double and a triple.

The Ferriday Gators were scheduled to take on Alexandria in their second game of the day at 7 p.m., but a couple of long games forced the start time to be pushed back to approximately 9 p.m.

Natchez 9-10s eliminated Saturday at state tournament

ELLISVILLE — The Natchez Dixie Softball 9- and 10-year-old All-Stars rolled past Bay St. Louis Saturday morning before being eliminated in dramatic fashion by Magee 8-7 in seven innings Saturday afternoon at the state tournament.

In their first game of the day, the Natchez 9-10s broke a 1-1 tie with an eight-run rally in the bottom of the fourth inning, which was highlighted by Rebecca Ratcliff’s three-run, inside-the-park home run. Ratcliff went 2-for-3 and Abby Fielder went 3-for-3.

Addison Jackson was the winning pitcher after striking out 13 batters and giving up just three innings over five complete innings.

But in the second game of the day, Natchez was unable to hold on after the game went into extra innings tied at 5-5. Natchez scored two runs in the top of the seventh inning to go ahead 7-5, but Magee rallied thanks to a bases-loaded walk that made it 7-6 and a two-run base-hit to left field to win the game.

Ratcliff allowed only three hits and struck out eight over five innings, but Kate Parsons was charged with the loss after walking six and striking out four in one and two-thirds innings. Gracie Harrigill went 4-for-4 with two doubles and Skylar Hughes went 3-for-4 with a double.

“I can’t speak enough about how Addison and Rebecca pitched. Great effort on both of their part,” Natchez 9-10s coach Eric Jackson said. “We were notified that we won the sportsmanship award for best sportsmanship.”

Natchez 15-and-under All-Stars eliminated at state tournament

ELLISVILLE — The Natchez Dixie Softball 15-and-under All-Stars went 1-2 at the state tournament over the weekend with a win over Sumrall sandwiched between two losses to a good Magee team.

The tournament did not start off well for Natchez as the team fell to Magee 20-4 in five innings Saturday morning. Tesa Wilson had a double, Rivers Lee was 2-for-2, and Bethany Barnes was charged with the loss.

Then on Saturday afternoon and facing elimination, Natchez bounced back with a 10-7 win over Sumrall. Destiny Lyles went 3-for-3 with a home run and Candi Gray was 2-for-3 with a home run. Kayla Starr was the winning pitcher in that game.

But on Sunday afternoon, the Natchez 15-and-under All-Stars saw their tournament run come to a screeching halt at the hands of Magee in a 20-2 five-inning defeat. Starr was charged with the loss. No other information on that game was available.

Natchez Dixie Youth 11-12s eliminated at state tournament

PASCAGOULA — The Natchez 11- and 12-year-old All-Stars had a quick stay at the state tournament and coach Seth Eidt was not too happy about the way the tournament was being run.

In a game that was delayed for hours by thunderstorms Friday night, the Natchez 11-12s were still forced to play their game against Pascagoula Red well into the early morning hours of Saturday. Pascagoula Red won the game 17-7 in five innings.

Decobus Jackson and Jasin Wesberry hit home runs for Natchez, but it was not nearly enough. Losing pitcher Peyton Wilson had to be pulled by Eidt after two-plus innings on the mound because his arm started hurting him.

“We had them down. Just couldn’t close the deal,” Eidt said. “The game didn’t end until 3:15 a.m. Then the kids got just four hours of sleep and we had to be back at the ball park at 9 a.m. (for the 10 a.m. game).

“We got handed a raw deal. Dixie Youth ought to be ashamed of what they did to us and other teams. They weren’t worried about any of the kids. All they cared about was the tournament schedule,” Eidt added.

The Natchez 11-12s ended up being eliminated from the state tournament on Saturday morning in a 14-4 loss to Clarksdale in four innings. Cade Eidt was the losing pitcher and had an RBI double in the bottom of the first inning.