HATTIESBURG – The Lincoln County Nationals rallied in the thirdand fourth innings to win over the Cleveland West All-Stars 11-7Saturday night in the Dixie Youth Baseball AAA 10s StateChampionship Tournament at Larry Doleac Sport Complex Field.

“Both teams got off to a shaky start,” said Lincoln County HeadCoach Stan Winborne. “But we didn’t let our guards down when wefell behind early in the first. We fought back and made it agame.”

The Nationals play again today against the Laurel Nationals at 7p.m., Laurel beat Iuka 7-2 in the winners bracket. In the losersbracket, Iuka faces Cleveland West at 5:00 p.m. The Kosciusko andPascagoula teams both received byes to Sunday. Play continues onMonday.

Nationals 11, Cleveland West 7

Tanner Waldrop produced a strong pitching performance for theNationals, collecting four strikeouts and allowing no walks. DylanWinborne chalked up the save with no strikeouts and two walks.Tucker Watts, (2 K, 5 BB) was the starting pitcher. Josh Nations (2K, 3 BB)also pitched..

“Our pitching was a little shaky at first,” continued Winborne.”But we gutted it out and did what it took to win.”

Owen Jackson (1 K, 1 BB) absorbed the loss in pitching relief forCleveland West. Blake Miller (0 K, 5 BB) started the game. Also inpitching relief were Trey Stedman (0 K, 1 BB) and Cannon Esch (1K,1BB).

Ben Springfield provided the offensive firepower for the Nationalswith two doubles. Dawson Zumbro also contributed with a double.Dylan Winborne, Tanner Waldrop and Keith Robinson collected asingle apiece.

“Our bats came alive in the third and fourth innings which helpedthe momentum shift to our favor,” added Winborne. “Overall, I wasvery pleased with our guys effort. They represented Lincoln Countyvery well.”

Winborne said he was pleased with the number of Lincoln Countybaseball fans who made the trip to Hattiesburg. “We really had abig crowd pulling for us.”

Blake Miller was the leading hitter for Cleveland West All-Starswith a triple. The others hits were Landon Howard, Frank Proctorand Mitchell Norquist with a single apiece.