After coming in second in their last two tournaments, the Batesville 7-year-old All-Star team corrected some mistakes and won the state championship.

The 7-year-old All-Stars traveled to Eupora this past 4th of July weekend determined to leave their mark in the history of Mississippi Dizzy Dean Baseball.

The action started Thursday, June 30 with Batesville facing the All-Stars of Fulton. Batesville set the tempo for the tournament in this opening matchup by ending the game in the fourth inning, 18-6. That made it mathematically impossible for the Fulton team to recover.

“The Batesville All-Star defense remained solid and the bats remained hot as they mathematically eliminated the next two opponents each in the fourth inning,” said Batesville head coach Greg Hopper.

That included Thursday’s second game against the All-Stars of Horn Lake with a final score of 23-8.

The winners bracket resumed play on Saturday with Batesville facing Pontotoc which also ended in a final score of 23-8 after the fourth inning.

Batesville’s second game on Saturday pitted them against the All-Stars of Senatobia for the final game in the winners bracket. Batesville was the final team standing undefeated with a score of 21-10, ending the game in the top of the fifth.

Sunday’s championship action started with Batesville facing the All-Stars of Tupelo who had dropped to the losers bracket in first round action but had battled their way through that bracket to play in the championship round.

The game started with Tupelo outscoring Batesville in the first inning 6-2. The battle raged through the sixth inning but Batesville would not be able to recover and lost their first game of the tournament with a final score of 22-17.

This loss only seemed to solidify the resolve of the Batesville All-Star team to win the final game of the tournament. Batesville won the coin toss and elected to take the field as the home team.

The Batesville defense came out strong and held the Tupelo offense to two runs by ending the inning in a double play with the catch of a fly ball to left field and a perfect shot to second base to pick off the runner who left the bag early.

Batesville’s offense then took charge and amassed seven runs while batting through the order. Once again the Batesville defense took the field and held the Tupelo offense to a single run, ending the inning with the same double play that ended the first.

That inning was the last to see a Tupelo runner cross home plate while the Batesville offense scored four in the second and six in the third making the score going into the bottom of the fourth 17-3 with only one run needed by Batesville to mathematically eliminate the Tupelo team.

The first bat for Batesville in the bottom of the fourth led off with a single. The next at bat was a double that moved the game ending run to third base. That was all that Batesville needed as the next and final at bat drove the game ending run across the plate to allow the 7-year-old Batesville All-Stars to place their mark in the history of Mississippi Dizzy Dean Baseball as the 2011 7-Year-Old North State Champions.

“Thanks to all the sponsors, family, and friends who made the baseball dreams of the 7-year-old Batesville All-Stars team financially possible,” said Greg Hopper, head coach.