Natchez rolls into Final Four

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, July 25, 2001

FOREST – The Natchez 13-year old Dixie Boys All-Stars just keep rolling along.

Tuesday night the team steamrolled it third opponent in a row, beating Hattiesburg 11-1 in five innings in a game between the remaining winner’s bracket squads.

&uot;The guys really stayed up,&uot; said coach Tim Foster. &uot;I don’t think it would have matter who they’d played.&uot;

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Timmy Foster struck out 12 Hattiesburg batters in five innings, yielding only one hit, which came in the fifth inning. Josh Naylor scored the lone, via an error and stolen bases.

Natchez hitters jackhammered Hattiesburg pitching in the first inning. Cole Bradford singled to right and advanced on a wild pitch to second base. He scored on a base knock by Chris Seeger. After Benji Maher was hit by a pitch, Micheal Chatman plugged the gap with a double, which plated Seeger and Maher and made the score 3-0. Clay Floyd singled in a run, and then Bradford reappeared at the plate to slap a hit to left, which scored two. Natchez led 6-0 after one inning.

&uot;We really jumped on them quick,&uot; Foster said. &uot;That’s what we like to do. Hattiesburg came in there fired up, about as fired up as we were. But they got down once we got those hits.&uot;

Natchez tacked on three runs in the second. The All-Stars drew four straight walks to score one run. Chatman stole home to net another, and Floyd picked up another run batted in with a single.

Natchez got its tenth run in the fourth inning, and was prepared to ten-run Hattiesburg in the fifth. But Naylor stole home to make the score 10-1. Natchez replied in the bottom of the fifth with its final run, courtesy of Chatman’s second steal of home, which ended the game.

Natchez will play Columbia tonight at 8 p.m. Natchez defeated Columbia 15-2 in its first game of the tournament.