TYLERTOWN — The Walthall County All-Stars captured the gold inGame Two of the best-of-three series by defeating the LincolnCounty Nationals 11-5 Friday night in the 10-year-old Dixie YouthBaseball AAA District Six Championship game at Paul L. KennedyPark.

“Our starting pitching was again tonight very poor and we walkedtoo many batters,” stated Lincoln County Nationals coach StanWinborne. “We could not overcome our mistakes with our bats.”

In game one, Walthall squeezed out a 12-11 win over the NationalsThursday night at Keystone Park in Brookhaven.

Both teams automatically advance to the South Regional Tournamentin Laurel-Jones County, which starts July 16. It will be adouble-elimination tournament.

Walthall 11, Nationals 5

Luis Smith provided a strong pitching performance for Walthall,collecting four strikeouts and four walks in four innings of work.Jayden Smith pitched in relief for Walthall with one strikeout andthree walks in the fifth and six innings.

Pitcher Dylan Winborne absorbed the loss for the Nationals,collecting no strikeouts and allowing four walks. Tucker Wattsprovided relief on the mound with five strikeouts and four walks.Dawson Zumbro also pitched in relief with no strikeouts and onewalk.

Tanner Waldrop led the offensive attack for the Nationals byhitting a solo homer in the first inning giving Lincoln County a1-0 advantage. Walthall answered back in the bottom of the firstwith five runs as they took advantage of the Nationals’ walks anddefensive miscues.

Walthall plated five more runs in the second and one more run inthe third, giving them an 11-1 advantage going into thefourth.

The Nationals refused to go way they showed some fight by answeringwith two runs of their own in the top of the fourth declining theten run rule. The Nationals offense added one run in the fifth andone more sixth in a great effort to make a comeback.

“We did an OK job tonight hitting the ball, but I know we couldhave done better” added Stan Winborne. “Hats off to Walthall, theyhave a good ball club. They had 11 players return from last year’steam that we beat in district to win it this year.”

The other hits for the Nationals with a single apiece were PeytonSmith, Dawson Zumbro, Cade Cangemi, and Dalton Fortado. OnThursday, Keith Robinson had a double for the Nationals.

“Now we must regroup and get ready for the South Regionals” saidWinborne. “We hope to represent Lincoln County a lot better atLaurel than against Walthall.”

LaGarrett Hamilton led the way for Walthall with a triple. DillonMorris and Mark Molaison also contributed with a doubleapiece.

“We are very proud to get the win. This was a good battle for usagainst a good team.” stated Walthall coach Charles Smith. “Ourkids played hard and were fortunate to win it this year, since welost the district championship to Brookhaven last year.”