VIDALIA, La. &045; At 8:15 p.m. Tuesday the umpiring crew at the District 5 South Sub-district Major League tournament in Vidalia trudged under the backstop gate, waded through a soaked blue tarp that blanketed home plate and surveyed a soggy field.

Their verdict after nearly a full hour of rain sopped up grass and dirt like a piece of garlic bread in etouffee?

Play ball.

Resuming a 4-3 ball game in the bottom of the fourth with one out, the Ferriday All-Stars and Winnsboro All-Stars never put another run on the board, as Winnsboro advanced to the championship round Thursday.

&uot;It’s been a good group of kids. All of them had a good attitude,&uot; Ferriday head coach Robert Rachal said. &uot;I’d love to coach them again if I could. I wish them well.&uot;

Winnsboro closer Jordan Temple, who had spent the night behind the plate, came on in relief of T.J. Murphy.

With two outs and the bases juiced, Ferriday had the man it wanted coming to the plate in cleanup hitter Josh Lee, who earlier had hit a homer.

&uot;Don’t give him a high pitch,&uot; Temple recalled thinking when Lee swaggered to the dish. &uot;I knew he’d take it out of the ball park.&uot;

Lee didn’t. Instead he went down whiffing, as did Ferriday’s chances of a possible rematch with cross-town rival Vidalia.

Vidalia, whose game was postponed Tuesday due to rain, plays a doubleheader against the Catahoula All-Stars today at 6 p.m., with a second 30 minutes following.

With a 1-0 count to Ferriday’s Trey Brasher in the bottom of the fourth with Winnsboro up 4-3, the home plate umpire issued a stoppage in play after lightning flashed in the distance.

Tarps were quickly spread across the plate, the pitcher’s mound, first, second and third base and in the area where shortstops played.

Teams were sent to the recreation center adjacent to the field, as red Coke crates, broomsticks, shovels, unused bases and a royal blue trash can prevented the tarps from whirling away.

The umpires made the decision at approximately 8:20 p.m. to proceed with the game to the cheers of the fans, despite shoes leaving 3 1/2-inch footprints in the infield dirt.

An inning before the roof fell open, Winnsboro had taken the lead after getting within 3-1 with a run in the second.

&uot;I was just trying to tell everybody to calm down because we had come back from 4-0 before,&uot; Temple said. &uot;I was trying to inspire everybody, and sure enough we came back and hit he ball well and played great defense.&uot;

Jim Boothe doubled to lead of the third and advanced to third when Ryan Hebert reached on an error.

Justin Johns followed with a two-RBI single to put Winnsboro up 3-1. Temple then singled homed Johns to build a 4-1 lead.

&uot;That first inning shattered some hopes and dreams for me,&uot; said T.J. Murphy, who served up two long balls in the first. &uot;But I knew I had a team behind me to get me through it.&uot;

Murphy hunkered down after his teammates got him the lead, and limited Ferriday to five base runners on just three hits after the first.

For the night he went 5-plus with 12 strikeouts before head coach Jimbo Murphy pulled T.J. Murphy when he surrendered a leadoff single in the bottom of the sixth.

&uot;He really settled down for us and got in a groove out there,&uot; Jimbo Murphy said of his son. &uot;He was able to throw the ball across the plate. He’s done as good of job as I can ask from an 11-year-old.&uot;

The Winnsboro coaching staff knew that if they could get at least four innings out of T.J. Murphy then it was feasible to bring Temple in to close Ferriday out and still have him eligible to pitch in the championship round under Dixie Youth regulations.

T.J. Murphy’s endurance after the rain delay was just what the doctor ordered, as Temple was chomping at the bit to get in during the sixth.

&uot;I wanted to come in. I was ready to pitch,&uot; he said. &uot;I didn’t want to lose the game because I knew we’d be eliminated. I was ready to save the game for us.&uot;

It was all Ferriday to begin the night, and it looked as though the rematch from Sunday’s 9-4 Vidalia win was setting up.

Beau Shively singled to lead things off, and was promptly brought home when Hunter Martin went yard for a 2-0 lead.

After Alec Webber struck out, Lee banged out a solo blast to put Ferriday up 3-0 for Shively, who started out on the mound.

&uot;They started out real strong, and got a little sluggish there in the middle,&uot; Rachal summed up his team’s performance. &uot;We finally came around a little too late. That’s the way games are won or lost, though. That’s baseball.&uot;