NATCHEZ &045; On a day where good fortune was about as hard to find as air conditioning, the Natchez All-Stars couldn’t be sore in defeat.

The 11-year-old All-Stars managed just one hit in an 10-0 defeat in four innings at the hands of McComb Tuesday to end their summer and put McComb in the driver’s seat in today’s District 6 championship game.

McComb needs just one win over Wesson to advance to the state tournament. Wesson needs to win twice.

If you ask the Natchez team, today may be a good showdown for baseball.

&uot;McComb is a very good team,&uot; Natchez head coach Tim Morrison said. &uot;I think our boys enjoyed their summer. McComb and Wesson will play tomorrow night for the championship, and both teams beat us. We were beat by the top two teams. Even though we lost, we lost to the best.&uot;

It certainly puts the two best teams playing today at 6 p.m. at Carroll-Jones Field in the debut season of 11-year-old All-Stars. McComb finally broke out at the plate and hit the ball like 12-year-olds against a couple of good Natchez pitchers who walked just two and allowed seven hits.

The 10 runs in four innings may give the momentum to McComb in today’s championship after it finally found a groove at the plate up and down the lineup.

&uot;I thought the difference in the game was our hitting,&uot; McComb head coach Mark Swindle said. &uot;We only had two or three hits the other night. I thought we had some nervous jitters &045; I really did. We had two weeks of practice, but we had so much rain we didn’t have much live action.&uot;

McComb had a chance to make up for lost time in the fourth inning when it stacked up seven runs for the 10-run lead. The rally forced Natchez left-hander Tyler Morrison to exit after facing four batters and allowing just four hits in a little over three innings.

Errors at time hurt Natchez, but give McComb credit for putting the bat on the ball. Konner Amis led off with a double and scored on a wild pitch, Conner Adams’ infield single scored Steven Swindle and Hunter Ray singled in two runs off reliever Hunter Hatcher for a 7-0 lead.

&uot;They hit the ball well and hit it in the holes,&uot; Tim Morrison said. &uot;They know how to run the bases. We hit it just about every time &045; just right at them. We were in good shape inning-wise. We put it over the plate. Walks didn’t hurt us. They just hit the gaps.&uot;

Hatcher then got a strikeout for the second out of the inning with the bottom of McComb’s lineup coming up, but trouble didn’t leave for a while. Rusty Eisworth reached on an error to load the bases again, and 11-hole hitter Ferrand Jenkins singled to score two more.

Eisworth went to third and later scored when Jordan Taylor reached on an error for the 10-0 lead.

&uot;All of us have been struggling, but the bottom half had been really struggling,&uot; Mark Swindle said. &uot;They came through for us &045; they really did. I thought Konner almost hit it out. It really made a difference.&uot;

Natchez wasn’t as fortunate at its turn at bat and didn’t get a hit until Rusty Blackwell’s looper to short left center fell in for a double with two outs in the fourth.

Semmes White was on first when Blackwell got the hit and went to third on the play, but Amis got Hatcher to strike out to end the game with two runners left stranded.

Up until then Natchez had just one baserunner when Ryan Goddard walked in the second. But a ground ball off the bat of Casey Calcote allowed second baseman Jordan Taylor to turn a double play to end the inning.

Amis struck out four and walked just one.

&uot;In our league this year he didn’t get to pitch,&uot; Mark Swindle said. &uot;The team he played on had 12-year-old pitchers. This is kind of a new thing for him. We knew he wouldn’t be a big strikeout pitcher, but he did a good job.&uot;