MADISONVILLE, La. — The Ferriday Gators Dixie Deb all-stars ended their season Tuesday and robbed themselves of their fourth state title in a row after falling to Rayville, 15-5.

“We did not play as well as we have been playing,” coach Rut Horne said. “We didn’t play that well in the infield and the number of errors we made in the tournament really made the difference.

“I don’t think they made one or two errors in the game. I guess they wanted it more than we did.”

Horne said the hardest thing for his team to overcome Tuesday was two home runs that gave Rayville seven of its 15 runs — one on a grand slam and one on a three-run shot.

“There’s not a whole lot you can do about that,” Horne said. “They played extremely well.”

The Gators forced an additional game Monday after splitting two games Sunday. They lost their first game to Rayville, 4-0, and then kept themselves alive by winning their next game over Winnsboro, 9-4.

Monday’s title game was rained out and pushed back to Tuesday.

Elizabeth Smith and Jania Burns combined to take the loss in the title game Tuesday.

Despite the loss, Horne said he is proud of how the Gators fought.

“I thought we competed well all summer. We didn’t win as many as we have won in the past, but it’s always fun,” he said. “We got our picked up our hitting toward the end of the game, but it was too little too late. We are just trying to figure out what we can do next year to win it again.”

19U Purple Sox still alive

NEW ORLEANS — The Vidalia 19U Purple Sox Dixie Boys all-stars fell to JPRD East Tuesday at its state tournament, 6-1.

In a game that would have won it the title, the Purple Sox will have another shot at 10 a.m. today after suffering just their first loss of the tournament.

Vidalia had seven hits in the game compared to JPRD East’s six, with Trenton Miller scoring their only run in the loss. Jace Watts picked up the RBI on 1-for-4 hitting.

“We just didn’t get a key hit,” coach Greg Naquin said. “We didn’t hit when we needed to, and the pitching wasn’t any better than we’ve seen.”

Jacob McDaniel took the loss on the mound, pitching 1.1 innings. Lee Lancaster came in for relief.