NATCHEZ &045; It was the whole reason the Natchez Minor League city All-Star championship was called off after one game.

Well, that and this wet stuff that’s about as annoying as that guy who keeps winning on Jeopardy.

The rain pushed back the start of the District 6 South sub-district tournament to today where the Natchez Rebel All-Stars and the Natchez Confederate All-Stars will face off at 6 p.m. at Brookhaven’s Keystone Park.

So just like the game that was scheduled last week at Ballew-Bowlin, the two teams will meet again &045; but this time an hour away. The remainder of the tournament includes Copiah and the two Brookhaven teams.

&uot;I don’t think that’s going to work in our favor,&uot; Rebel League head coach Tom Middleton said. &uot;My personal preference would be not to play the other Natchez team. With a six-team tournament, the odds are pretty good we’ll face the other team. We drew them last year, and they put it on us. We’ll just take whatever comes our way.&uot;

The score was similar in what turned out to be the only game of the All-Star series Saturday when the Confederate League took a 10-3 win. But you may never know with this group after last season when the Rebel League got swept in the city series, lost the opening game to the Confederate League and didn’t lose again until the state tournament.

The Confederate League rallied to take a 10-9 win in the opening round of the sub-district &uot;We’ll have to play everybody before it’s over,&uot; Confederate head coach Al Hall said. &uot;In a kind of way, I wish we weren’t playing them. They’ve got a good team. But we’ll have to play everybody.&uot;

The interesting twist to it all for both teams is you just don’t know what’s going to happen. This summer is the first for the tournament to be broken into North and South brackets after Natchez had been grouped with Franklin County, Pine Hills and Claiborne County.

The Rebel League was the story of the summer after losing right off the bat and advancing to the state championship game before losing to Pascagoula. The team has three players off that team with Avery Middleton, Chris Perry and Jamon Gray.

&uot;They all started on that team last year,&uot; Middleton said. &uot;We’ve got some pretty good experience. That’s what I told (assistant) Allen Tyra after we got beat &045; ‘That’s where we came from last year.’ But we never got to play them two games, so we’ll never know. That may hurt us &045; not getting those two games in.&uot;

The rain may have put both teams back a little bit, but everyone else at the tournament may be in the same boat. Hall’s team spent some time in the covered batting cages at Adams Christian to get some work in despite the weather, but there has been little chance to work on defense here lately.

While the Rebel League may have the best longball hitter in the league in Christopher Perry, the Confederate League likes its chances at the plate.

&uot;I tell you &045; you never know what you’re going to get out of 9- and 10-year-olds kids, but I’m excited about these kids,&uot; Hall said. &uot;They really hit the ball well. I think we’ve got a chance of winning some ball games over there. We’ve got the kids who can do it. We’ve got 13 kids who can hit the ball. I feel real good about these kids and their ability to play ball.&uot;