The Lincoln County Nationals 11-year-old All-Stars are ready tomake a run in the Dixie Youth Baseball Majors South RegionalTournament that begins tonight at Magee Sports Complex in Magee.The Nationals play Pascagoula at 6 p.m.

Other opening round games in the double-elimination tournament areWayne County vs. Hattiesburg Nationals, followed by LaurelNationals vs. Magee, and Natchez vs. Columbia. Action continuesSaturday, with Friday’s winners playing at 8 p.m. and Friday’slosers meeting at 6 in the elimination games. The Laurel Americansdrew a bye and await the winner of Magee vs. Laurel Nationalsgame.

The tournament is scheduled to run through next Wednesday. Thefirst and second place teams advance to the state tournament atHattiesburg that begins July 23

“We’re looking forward to going over and playing in the SouthRegional tournament, ” said National manager Beck Warren. “Mageehas a fantastic new facility and it will be a nice atmosphere forbaseball. Our guys are going to play loose and have fun.”

The Nationals were swept by Natchez in the Dixie Youth BaseballDistrict Six Championship. Warren’s assistant coaches are ChuckRushing and Glynn Murray.

Warren said his team has been dedicated to practice. “Our kids havebeen working hard this week and we’ve really tried to stress thatsticking to the fundamentals will determine our success. Any wayyou slice it; good pitching, solid fielding and timely hitting willalways give you an opportunity to be competitive. We don’t have tofill up the highlight reels; just handle the routine plays andwe’ll be in the mix.”

Members of the Lincoln County Nationals 11 year old team are BradynBrister, Konner Allen, Fisher Warren, Madison Smith, StephenSpringfield, Canon Travis, Reese Reynaud, Lakin Wallace, MichaelHarvey, Nathan West, Logan Murray, Jeffrey Daniels

Lastly, Warren said, “Our parents have all been supportive and wecan’t thank them enough. We as a team would like to thank WeldonSmith and the entire Lincoln County Youth Sports baseball committeefor all that they do. There is so much that goes into a successfulprogram for our kids during regular season and then there is anentirely new season with our all-star tournaments. They’ve workedtirelessly to make sure we have everything we need to just go playbaseball.”

Wesson, Lawrence In 12s

The Wesson and Lawrence County 12s All-Stars also begin actiontonight at the Magee Sports Complex. Wesson is set to play MossPoint at 8 p.m. Lawrence County battles Columbia at 6 p.m.

Other opening round games are Mendenhall vs. Magee, followed byNatchez vs. Hattiesburg Nationals. Action continues Saturday, withFriday’s winners playing at 8 p.m. and Friday’s losers meeting at 6in the elimination games. Laurel Nationals drew a bye and await thewinner of the Magee -Mendenhall game.

“We know that we have a very good team and we are confident aboutgoing up there to win,” said Wesson head coach Russ Lewis. ” Wemust be ready to play, because Moss Point has a very goodteam.”

Assisting Lewis are Steve Porter and Eric Rhymes. Members of theWesson 12s team are Eric Rhymes, Max Daughdrill, Farrod Green, TreFleming, Daniel Lyle, Tyler McLeod, Blake Runyan, Landon Lewis,Matthew Burns, Colby Porter, Jonah Henderson, and JustinBoone.

Members of the Lawrence County 12s team are Luke McNerney, RashadHaynes, Gabriel Lewis, Tez Cole, Jason Bird, Blake Greenlee, BubbaCase, Seth Bass, Blake Williams, Roger Rushing, Brennan Lang, andJoshua Stephens. The Manager is Dale Stephens and his assistantsare Shane Bullock and Jimmy Rushing.