TYLERTOWN — Riding a victory wave, the Lincoln County AmericanLeague All-Stars cruised to a 16-11 Wednesday night, comebackvictory over Walthall County. The win gave the Americans a sweep inthe best-of-three Dixie Youth Baseball AAA 9s District Six playoffseries. They have won 7 straight playoff games.

Both teams advance to the DYB State Tournament at Hattiesburgthat begins July 17. Lincoln County will be seeded No. 1 out ofDistrict Six and Walthall will be No. 2.

Nine teams are entered. The Americans will play the District 5runner-up.

“Our subdistrict and district experience should help us in thestate tournament,” said American League manager Stan Winborne. “Wehad to play five games in the subdistrict.” His team batted .403,exceeding expectations.

“I knew our pitching would be strong and our hitting camethrough,” he added. “I’m proud of our assistant coaches for theirefforts and our parents for supporting us. We appreciate that verymuch.”

On a sweat-soaked night, American pitcher Dylan Winborne (2 Ks,5 BB) started the game and went 2 innings. He faced 16 batters,allowing 7 runs on 5 hits. Two runs were earned.

Tucker Lambert (1 K, 4 BB) replaced Winborne in the third. Hefaced 11 batters and allowed 3 runs on 1 hit. None of the runs wereearned and Lambert picked up the win as the Americans led14-10.

Cade Hodges (1 K, 1 BB) tossed the fifth and sixth innings withprecise control. He faced 8 batters and gave up 1 unearned run on 1hit.

Walthall County counted on pitcher O.J. Magee (10 K, 7 BB) whowent 6 innings. He faced 37 batters, giving up 16 runs and 12 hits.Seven of the runs were earned.

Directing the Americans at the plate was Parker Flowers whosingled and doubled. Lambert singled twice. Hodges singled andtripled. Dillon Griffin singled and doubled. Marquis Bridgesdoubled.

Collecting singles for the winners were Winborne, Justin Johnsonand Cullen Keene.

“Tylertown (Walthall) hit the ball well,” said Winborne. “Theyhit it better than Tuesday night,” when the Americans prevailed17-10.

Louis Smith singled and doubled for Walthall. Cameron Cowart andCamdun Gilmore doubled. Magee, Jashun Carpenter and Tanner Polksingled.

“Our kids were kind of down after the second inning but we feltlike we could come back from two runs down,” said Winborne. “Wemanaged to get two good innings from Tucker in the middle.”

The Americans scored 5 runs in the third and 4 in the fourth tolead 14-10. They added 2 more in the fifth.