BUDE — The Natchez 10-year-old All-Star team has fought hard to climb out of the losers’ bracket after losing its first game at the sub-district tournament.

However, after winning its next two games, Natchez’s run finally ended in a 13-9 loss to Lincoln County Nationals on Friday night.

“This team really battled the whole tournament,” Natchez coach Josh Hargon said. “We lost our first game, came back and won the next two and then lost tonight to an undefeated team. I’m definitely proud of the kids. They stepped up to the challenge.”

For a while, it looked like Natchez’s run through the losers’ bracket might continue, as they had a 5-3 lead over the Nationals after scoring three runs in the top of the third inning.

However, that’s when it all came crashing down for Natchez.

Errors led to the Nationals scoring five runs in the bottom of the third inning and four more in the bottom of the fourth to turn a 5-3 deficit into an 12-6 lead.

“We had some costly errors that kept their inning alive and they scored runs off of it,” Hargon said. “We just gave up too many runs on too many errors, and that’s something we haven’t done the whole tournament. We had maybe two errors in three games and we had four or five errors in this game.”

The errors spoiled a fine pitching performance for Marshall Edmonds, who kept his team in the game, Hargon said.

“Marshall pitched a heck of a game and I’m really proud of him,” Hargon said. “He did everything I wanted him to do tonight. He stepped up to the challenge. We just made a few errors and that’s baseball. (Lincoln Nationals) made errors too, but it didn’t cost them as bad as it cost us.”

Dre Melton hit a home run for Natchez in the loss, while Rudy Nugent had a double and a triple and Josh Day hit a double.

Day, Edmonds, Nugent and Dee Batieste each had multiple hits for Natchez.