Behind strong defense, the 6-year-old Pike County National League Dixie Youth baseball all-stars won the district tournament championship sweeping all three games at Windsor Gay Youth Complex in Summit Friday and Saturday.
The Pike County National League defeated the Pike County American-League all-stars in in back-to-back games Saturday. The National League won 16-1 in three innings, 12-0 in four innings and advanced to the championship with a 17-0 victory in three innings against Natchez Friday. None of the games took more than 30 minutes.
The National League will be in the state tournament in Cleveland with the first game against the Cleveland West all-stars at 6:30 p.m. July 8.
“My kids came out and played. They made zero errors in the tournament. It was unreal for 6-year-olds,” National League head coach Clay Cooper said of his team’s performance Friday and Saturday. He noted an umpire told him his team’s defense was better than 9-year-olds in another game he called.
National League right fielder Andrew Lott caught one ball in each game against the American League. The catch in the final game came with a runner on first base.
“They all jumped on top of him when he came in,” Cooper said. “That was the third out of the inning. They gave him five. He had to make a running catch to make that one.”
The National League head coach said the goal was just to get outs at first base, but the defense turned several double plays with shortstop Maddox Cooper, second baseman Dawson Hughes and first baseman Semaj Ross. Third baseman Mason Wilson also made key defensive stops.
“They’re like a really advanced older team,” Coach Cooper said. “It’s crazy to watch them play. Everything they hit hard, we were catching. They wouldn’t let it get by.”
Hughes homered and doubled for the National League, Maddox Cooper and Ross homered, Paxton Waldrop connected on two doubles while Aaron Cooper homered and hit a couple of doubles.
The American League’s big game came in a 20-3 win in three innings against Natchez on Friday.
Cooper Speed, Canaan Johnson and Jaylyn Lewis all went 3 for 3 for the American League in the win. Speed and Johnson each doubled while Lewis had two inside-the-park homers.
Dawson Sharp, Elijah Martin, Brentley Stump, Daniel Grantham and Bryson Martin were all 2 for 2. Martin had an inside the park homer of his own.
In the two losses, the American League had just one strikeout while the National League did not strikeout in those games.
“Baseball is a game of inches. When we hit it, we hit it right to them,” American League head coach Eric Sandifer said. “In two games, we only had one kid strikeout. Every time we hit, we hit it right to their guys. They made the play, no bad throws. Their second baseman, I can’t tell you how many guys he got us out.”
Sandifer said the National League was more focused Saturday, but that does not take away from everything his 6-year-olds accomplished.
“I had a very exciting group of kids,” he said. “You had about three weeks to prepare for all stars. You practice four to five days a week about two hours a day. We did take one day off and went to the Splash Pad in McComb.”
Sandifer said it’s hard to combine four teams into one group of 12 players, but his athletes were up to the challenge.
“We did that,” he said. “They enjoyed it. They loved it. In four weeks’ time period, I felt like those kids are my kids. We enjoyed it. We grew together.”
Lamar Hughes, Drew Waldrop and Landon Wilson were the assistant coaches for the National League. Chardareo Brown, Myles Grantham and Kenny Speed were the assistants for the American League.
The National League defeated a Walthall 7-year-old all-star team 16-3 in a scrimmage prior to the district tournament. Cooper said his team was so excited after winning the district tournament in Summit Saturday that his players tackled him. He expects the momentum to carry to the state tournament in Cleveland.
“I honestly think if they played like they played yesterday (Saturday), there’s nobody in the 6-year-old division that can beat them,” he said.
