NATCHEZ &045; Bankston Drug Store was outhit by Britton & Koontz nine to seven, but took advantage of six walks and seven errors to take a 9-5 victory and win the T.M. Jennings 11-12 championship Friday Night.

Starting and winning pitcher Davian Noble scattered five runs and nine hits over six innings and struck out 10. He also walked three for Bankston, who finished undefeated with a 12-0 record.

&uot;It feels good,&uot; Bankston co-head coach Larry Banks said about the team being the 11-12 champion. &uot;We’ve been down the last few years. We’ve still got a few more things to iron out.&uot;

&uot;They’ll come to my house. They’ll call me. I’ll take them to the field and coach ’em,&uot; Bankston co-head coach Hubert Gaines said.

It was a disappointing end to the season for Britton & Koontz, who went into the championship game with a losing record, 5-6, and had its chances to pull of a huge upset win.

Devon Swayze was the losing pitcher, giving up nine runs on seven hits and six walks while striking out seven in five innings.

&uot;If we played a fundamentally sound game, we would’ve had a chance,&uot; B&K coach James Crenshaw said. &uot;We played hard, though. I’m proud of them.&uot;

Bankston jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when Noble, who was also the leadoff hitter, reached on an error, went to second on another error and scored on a two-base error.

B&K had a chance to take the lead in the top of the second when Kelvin Barber tripled and Channing White reached first on a walk.

However, Noble settled down and instead of throwing fastballs, he changed to his curveball to strike out the side and leave the runners stranded.

&uot;That probably was the deciding point&uot; of the game, Crenshaw said. &uot;At that point, we had all the momentum. We had them on their heels, but we let a golden opportunity slip away.&uot;

Banskton increased its lead to 3-0 in the bottom of the second when Larry Banks Jr. walked and later scored on an error and Jarvis Gaines walked and scored on a run-scoring double by Vincent Buck.

But twice in the frame and two other times later in the game, Bankston baserunners went past the base and were tagged out. After the game, coach Banks said he was not happy about those mistakes, &uot;because we rehearsed on sliding.&uot;

B&K cut the lead to 3-2 in the top of the third when Swayze tripled and scored on a single by Davarious Clemons, who later scored on a one-out single by Barber.

But once again, Noble got of a jam, this time by striking out White and Jeffrey Woods.

&uot;He loves to throw hard and he loves to win,&uot; coach Banks said about Noble. &uot;He’s got strong endurance.&uot;

&uot;We left a lot of runners on third base,&uot; Crenshaw said. &uot;That to me was the deciding point.&uot;

Bankston got those two runs back in the bottom of the third as Rashad Rankin singled and later scored on a triple by Percy Turner, who then scored on a single by Terry Cole Jr.

B&K, however, would not go away quietly as it scored twice in the top of the fourth on an RBI double by Clemons that scored Javarious Hawkins and an RBI single by Chris Spencer that scored Clemons.

In the top of the fifth, after a Barber triple, Noble caught a pop-up by White, but ran into first baseman Gaines and appeared to had injured his left knee. But he stayed in the game and was still throwing strikes.

&uot;You couldn’t get him out,&uot; coach Gaines said. &uot;He was hurt, but stayed in there. When the pitcher came back (was the deciding point).&uot;

Bankston stretched its lead to 9-4 with two runs in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI single by Ronnie Groves and an RBI groundout by Rankin and two in the bottom of the fifth on an error and a wild pitch.

B&K scored one run in the top of the sixth, but it was not enough.