The Natchez Wallace and Ace Adams League All-Stars got off to winning starts in the Dixie Youth 11-12 sub-district tournament Friday night.

The Wallace League defeated Franklin County 11-1, and the Ace Adams League convincingly beat Claiborne County 8-3.

&uot;Our hitting was pretty fair tonight,&uot;&160;said Wallace League head coach David New Jr.

&uot;Our pitching and defense did real well tonight, and our hitting was alright, so overall I&160;think they did a real good job tonight.&uot;

The Wallace League scored first as Cole Bradford doubled and came home on an error for the game’s first run.

With one out in the bottom of the second inning, Steven Ridley belted a 1-1 pitch over the fence for a solo home run, which gave the Wallace League a 2-0 advantage.

Meanwhile, on the mound for the Wallace League, Benji Maher reeled off six strikeouts through the first three innings, to solidify the pitching game for the Wallace stars.

&uot;Benji did a real good job for us tonight. There’s not much you can say to a boy who’s throwing as well as he was tonight,&uot;&160;New said.

Scott Pollard singled and scored on an error in the third inning.

Then, the floodgates opened up on Franklin County in the bottom of the fourth as the Wallace League scored four times, which made the score 7-0.

The only offensive highlight for Franklin County came in the top of the fifth when Cody Jones led off the inning with a solo blast deep to left field.

&uot;The only team we haven’t seen yet is Claiborne County, so otherwise I feel like if our sticks get going, we should do just fine in this tournament,&uot;&160;New said.

In the second game of the night, the Ace Adams League jumped on Clairbone with a 4-0 lead after three innings.

&uot;We had some real good things happen for us tonight,&uot;&160;Ace Adams head coach Gus Perry said. &uot;Things like Mark Hamelin laying down a fantastic bunt early in the game to set up a run. It’s the little things that we do well, which is what we stress as coaches.&uot;

Ace Adams plated one run in the first inning, and three runs in the third inning on a Jason Calcote single, a Travis McCready walk, a Blain Floyd double, and a Michael Chatman single.

Ace Adams went into the top of the fourth inning with a 5-0 lead, when three errors and a hit batsman led to three unearned Claiborne County runs.

&uot;We kind of slipped up there in the fouth, but our guys understood that we still had a job to do, so they did it,&uot;&160;Perry said.

Matt Goss, Hamelin, and C.J. Wright laced consecutive RBI-singles, which rounded out the scoring in the game.

&uot;The boys have been looking forward to playing the other Natchez team again, and they know it’s not going to be easy, but now they get their chance to prove their worth,&uot; Perry said.

Tony Godbold pitched for the win, and Joseph Porter was tagged with the loss.

Claiborne and Franklin tangle tonight at 6 p.m. followed by the Ace Adams and Wallace Leagues going at it at 8 p.m.