GONZALES, La. — The Concordia Parish 11-year-old All-Star team came up one win short of winning the state championship after a dramatic victory to win its four-team pool.

In the state championship game, Monroe took advantage of four errors in the bottom of the third inning as well as good hitting to defeat Concordia Parish 12-1 in four innings Sunday afternoon.

Monroe scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning and four runs in the bottom of the second before putting the game out of reach by scoring six runs in the bottom of the third.

“Monroe hit the ball well 1 through 13. They put the ball in play,” head coach Whest Shirley said. “We had four errors in one inning. They were routine dribblers that we couldn’t make a play on.”

Gardner was the winning pitcher for Monroe. He struck out just four batters and walked four, three of them in the top of the first inning. Concordia Parish had a golden opportunity to get on the scoreboard only to come up empty handed.

“We left the bases loaded. After that, we couldn’t put anything together,” Shirley said.

Monroe finished with nine hits in the game. Tracey (no first name given) hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the second inning. Lawrence went 2-for-2 with a pair of doubles.

Concordia Parish got its only hits in the game from Pate Shirley, Kade Passman and Corey Henson. And all of them were singles. Its only run was in the top of the fourth inning. Its defense committed six errors in the title game.

“We had finished our game while Monroe was still playing DeRidder. They had to defeat DeRidder to get to the championship game,” Shirley said. “I don’t think anyone expected us to play on the last day of the season. We just couldn’t put it all together.”

Jake Barlow was the losing pitcher as he allowed six runs, struck out none and walked one in two innings.

Concordia Parish 4, Gonzales 2 (8 innings)

Dylan Parnham made up for his lackluster performance in the district tournament by hitting a two-run walk-off home run with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning to get Concordia Parish to the championship game earlier in the afternoon.

Jayden Ivey got on with a single before Parnham hit the game-winning home run.

“In our district tournament, Dylan had the worst batting average on the team. He came through for us in the bottom of the eighth,” Shirley said.

Another key to Concordia Parish’s win was the performance of pitcher Cole Cangemi. He pitched seven innings and struck out 16 batters while walking none.

“Cole once again had a heck of a game. He had seven innings left. He shut them down. He had a great game,” Shirley said. “We just battled back and forth.”

The game resumed with the score tied at 0-0 with Gonzales having runners on second and third with one out. After Cangemi struck out a batter to make it two outs, an error allowed both base runners to score and the visiting team had a quick 2-0 lead.

Concordia Parish tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the fourth. Tyler Cothern led off with a double and Barlow advanced him to third with a single. Pate Shirley then scored Cothern with a single. Cangemi got on with a fielder’s choice and later stole home plate on a wild pitch.

Barlow picked up the save for the Concordia Parish 11-year-old All-Stars and he struck out two batters in the top of the eighth inning. Shirley was the only multiple hitter for either team as he went 2-for-3.