TYLERTOWN — Charles Smith wants Walthall County to have as successful a Dixie Youth Baseball program as its neighbors to the west.
Right now, his 10-year-old all-stars are showing Pike County how it’s done.
The Walthall County All-Stars completed a five-game undefeated run through the Sub-district 6 Tournament Monday night with a resounding 12-5 victory over the McComb American League All-Stars.
Walthall County will travel to Brookhaven for the first game in the best-of-three series for the overall division crown beginning at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Game 2 will be at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Tylertown. The site for a deciding third game, if necessary, would be decided by coin flip following Friday’s game.
“Pike County is one of the toughest places to get out of,” said Smith, whose team hosted the sub-district tournament. “McComb, Summit and Magnolia have some tough teams to beat. I want us to build a program like the one they have.”
If a coin flip is needed to decide the location for a Game 3, Smith may want his coaching counterpart to call it. That was the scenario Monday, with McComb American League head coach Clifford Holifield calling and winning the flip.
From there, the Walthall County All-Stars took kindly to the role of visitor. They quickly grabbed momentum with a four-run top of the first inning.
“As a coach, I like to play defense first and be able to bat last,” Smith said. “The kids, they want to hit first all the time.”
Cameron Cowart legged out an infield single to open the game. The speedster came around to score on Dillon Morris’ double to the right-center field fence. Morris scampered to third on a McComb throwing error and scored on Jaylen Smith’s infield groundout to make it 2-0.
A walk to Miles Reagan, a Tanner Polk infield single and a wild pitch put runners on second and third. Mark Malaison followed with a bloop single to left that scored both runners to stretch the lead to 4-0.
“They’re clutch,” Clifford Holifield said of Walthall County’s hitting with runners in scoring position. “Ten-year-old baseball goes both ways sometimes. Our pitching did fine. But we missed three chances early in the game for RBIs. They didn’t.”
McComb American stayed close early with three runs in the bottom of the first.
Ernest Bryant led off with a walk, went to second on a passed ball and executed a delayed steal of third base.
One out later, Tyler Ramshur walked and went to second on a passed ball to put runners at second and third.
Eric Holifield then roped a single to center that plated Ramshur. After Holifield moved to second on a wild pitch, Equerius Brumfield laced a single to right that scored Ramshur and Holifield to pull McComb American to within 4-3.
From there, Walthall County pitcher O.J. Magee found his groove. After issuing a leadoff walk to Lawson Myrick in the second, Magee struck out the next three hitters on 10 pitches, all strikes.
In all, Magee threw 14 consecutive strikes, including four in a row to open the third, before missing out of the zone.
“He’s O.J.,” Smith said of his pitcher. “We’ve climbed on his back and let him carry us a little bit this year. He got some run support tonight and stayed with it.”
Walthall County got an insurance run in the third to make it 5-3 when Reagan singled to left, took second on a throwing error, advanced to third on a passed ball and scored on Polk’s single to left-center.
After surrendering two singles and four walks in the inning, McComb American was fortunate to get out of the third without further damage. One Walthall County runner was caught trying to steal second base and another was tagged out at the plate by McComb American pitcher Holifield while trying to score on a wild pitch.
One inning later, however, Walthall County broke open the game even further with a seven-run fourth inning.
A leadoff walk to Magee, LaGarrett Hamilton’s single to center and a passed ball put runners on second and third. One out later, they both came home on JaShun Carpenter’s double to the center field fence.
Carpenter then scored on Cowart’s bloop double to left that expanded Walthall County’s lead to 8-3.
Cowart moved to third on a botched rundown and scored on a passed ball to make it 9-3.
Morris then beat out an infield single and moved to second on a passed ball. Jaylen Smith followed with a single to center. A throwing error from the outfield to third base allowed Morris to trot home for a 10-3 advantage.
Smith scampered to third on the miscue.
Reagan then walked and stole second. After a McComb American pitching change, Polk grounded out to score Smith. Another McComb American throwing error also allowed Reagan to score and up the margin to 12-3.
From there, Gonsalves, who came on in relief of Holifield, did not allow a run in 22/3 innings of work.
“I was very pleased with Josh,” Clifford Holifield said. “He did a phenomenal job coming in.”
McComb American tallied a run in the fourth when Brumfield walked with one out, took second on a passed ball and scored on a Josh Gonsalves single to pull to within 12-4.
McComb American capped the scoring with a run in the bottom of the sixth. Bryant led off with a walk, went to third on two passed balls and scored on Holifield’s single to right.
